


The Kalends of July

by Pleonastica



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Aphrodite Made Them Do It, Barebacking, Blow Jobs, Boy x boy, First Time Bottoming, First Time Topping, Lemon, Love, M/M, Romance, Slash, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-03-14 08:40:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 46,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3404252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pleonastica/pseuds/Pleonastica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The problem started when Golden Boy Jason's birthday came up and his girlfriend wanted to throw him a special party. Of course, Piper wanted Jason to dance—except that Jason doesn't know how to. What happens when a certain raven-haired son of Poseidon is asked to teach Jason? Everyone is in for a surprise. Rated Explicit for yaoi (male x male), lemon, and language.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Party Preparations

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belongs to Rick Riordan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first story on here! I hope everyone likes the story. This is actually a copy from my Fanfiction work, but I'm beginning a slow migration to this site. Regardless, there were a few structural errors in this chapter originally, so I had to fix them. There are shifts in points of view, marked by double line breaks to make it clear. I hope that doesn't rob the story of its integrity. Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belongs to Rick Riordan.

"Oh, honey, it's okay. No need to be so mad," Aphrodite said to Ares in a useless attempt to console him. Aphrodite was used to his nonsense by now, so she was doing her semi-best to cheer him up. But even when she's dealt with this problem for so long, she couldn't seem to do anything for Ares this time. "It's been six years—I'm sure he's not even thinking about it!"

The god of war looked at her as his nostrils flared. "I don't care if it's been six years or 600," Ares bellowed. "I want to kill that punk!" The two were sitting in someplace in Pennsylvania beside a lake. They were at a restaurant and decided to sit outside, the sun shining ever so brightly even on a cool day. But, of course, the weather was the last thing on either of their minds as Ares kept on having his fit. "The kid needs to die."

"I'm sure Poseidon wouldn't like to see his son die, especially by your hand," reminded Aphrodite. "You wouldn't want to get on his bad side. Besides, why can't you just drop this grudge you have?"

"Remind me,  _honey_ , what's my domain?" Ares wasn't calming like he normally would.

Aphrodite sighed and replied with her chin resting on her hand, "War."

"War. Exactly. Now, if I'm the god of war, and a kid like  _Percy Jackson_  beat me, that makes me look really bad." Ares sat back onto his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Son of Poseidon or not, that little snot deserves to be punished."

"But he's just a kid. Percy's done plenty other things to make up for the fact that he did that to you, so please just drop it. Plus it's not good for your skin to be so mad." The goddess of love chuckled behind a fan that looked like it belonged to the Renaissance. She fanned herself as Ares looked at her with a controlled angry face, a face Aphrodite was oh so used to.

"Okay. I'll drop my grudge against him if you do me a favor. I swear on the River Styx to never talk about this 'incident' again if you do the favor for me." In the distance, the two of them heard thunder rumble.

Aphrodite lifted her face off her hand and looked at him cautiously. "By 'favor', what exactly do you mean?"

Ares smiled devilishly at her. "Do something to him to make sure he regrets ever beating me in the fight. I don't care what you do, but make sure it's humiliating."

For once, Aphrodite smiled back at Ares. "Oh! I have the perfect plan. And since you won't talk about it anymore once I do it, I'm happy to oblige." Ares took a sip of his beer and put the drink down.

"What's the plan?"

"Oh, just some twists and turns," was all Aphrodite said.

**-PJ &TO!-**

"Hey, Percy. C'mere real quick, would you?" Leo called over. "Dude, you  _have_  to check this out." Percy walked across Camp Jupiter's grass over to Leo.

"What is it, Leo?" Leo wore his traditional orange t-shirt that read CAMP HALF-BLOOD and blue jeans smeared with black grease all over them. He carried a wrench from which Percy assumed he grabbed out of his signature tool belt that was around his waist. He stood next to Leo and gave him a half-annoyed, half-confused look.

"So remember how in Rome, I went with Hazel and Frank and I found scrolls from Archimedes' archive?"

"Umm. Sure?" Percy replied with one eyebrow raised. Like Leo, Percy too wore his orange t-shirt and jeans, but his jeans were clean, and his arm still branded the SPQR tattoo.

Leo smiled, "So I was studying one of his designs for a long time and I finally managed to crack the design for his control sphere!" He was practically jumping up and down from excitement. When he settled down, he picked up a bronze sphere with weird buttons on it. "You see?"

Percy laughed. "That's real cool. What can it do?" he asked, with a little more curiosity in his voice. Leo pointed at a statue at a square. Leo pressed a few buttons and the statue turned into an automaton that started to dance. "Now  _that's_  interesting. Nice, Leo." He patted him on the back. As Percy began to walk away, Leo continued to mess with the buttons excitedly and making the automaton play twister with some Romans.

It was the 29th of June and Percy, for once not being allowed to go on a quest, had nothing to do. They had rescued Nico, escaped Tartarus, and defeated Gaea. But even with the second  _Pax Romana_  and the  _Pax Graeca_ , there should always be some quests that Percy can do, even if it's something stupid like getting a stick off a mountain for Demeter. Percy sighed as he kicked some dirt and rested on a column.  _And where was Annabeth?_  he thought. As if on cue, a blonde girl with stormy, gray eyes bounded around the corner, holding a notepad in her hand. Her hair bounced as she walked and the sun's rays did their best to make her hair look as golden as possible.

The son of Poseidon got up from the pillar and walked towards her, the both of them smiling. Annabeth wrapped her arms around Percy's neck and Percy put his arms around her waist. "Hi," the daughter of Athena said. "Sorry I wasn't here earlier, I was with Piper and Jason planning his birthday party."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Birthday party? When's his birthday?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's the first of July. He didn't get to celebrate it last year because we were in Europe. But Piper wanted to do something nice for him so we decided to throw him a party."

He contemplated this. "Is there anything I can do to help? I've been bored all day."

Annabeth uncoiled herself from Percy's arms and checked her notepad. "Um, not sure. Maybe you can ask Jason?" Percy nodded and the two walked off to go find Jason and Piper.

They reached the Pomerian Line and Terminus scanned them both to make sure they had no weapons. When they passed, they entered New Rome and went directly to the Forum. Piper and Jason were standing together, talking about gods-know-what. Piper turned, "Oh, hi Percy. We were just planning Jason's birthday party."

Jason chimed in, embarrassed, "Yeah, even though I told her she didn't have to."

"But she wanted to do something sweet for you, so just be happy with it," Annabeth said excitedly. "By the way, we came back because Percy—"

"Wanted to ask you," Percy interrupted, "if I could help with anything." He gave Annabeth an  _I'm sorry_  look and continued. "I've been bored all day and I actually did want to help you guys."

"Uh, Piper and Annabeth, could you excuse us for a minute? I need to speak to Percy in private about something." Piper and Annabeth exchanged glances.

"Sure," Piper finally said, albeit rather uncertainly.

The two walked off somewhere that was out of earshot from the two. Jason leaned closer to Percy as an added measure of security, "Do you know how to dance?"

Percy looked at him as if to ask " _are you serious?_ " The Sea Prince laughed quietly. "Yeah, I danced with Annabeth before. Why?"

Jason looked down, "Because…Piper suggested that I dance with her during the party and Annabeth liked the idea, so she insisted it. So I just decided to say yes. The problem is that I don't know how to dance."

Percy laughed again. "Dancing's easy; it all really depends on what the dance is." He looked at Piper. "Do you know what the dance is?"

"The waltz," the son of Jupiter replied. "I…don't know how to waltz."

"I know how to waltz, and I'll be more than happy to teach you." Percy smirked at him. "It's as easy as one-two-three."

Jason sighed in relief. "Thank the gods," he smiled brightly. "Maybe now I won't have to worry so much. And Piper will be happy, too."

"Yeah. When do you want me to teach you?"

"Preferably tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

"That's one day before the party though, before your birthday. Don't you need to set up the party?"

"Nah, it's just a birthday party. Besides, I can let the girls handle that." Jason looked at Piper and Annabeth in the corner, "Anyways, isn't a birthday party better when the birthday person doesn't know what's going to be there?"

Percy pondered that thought for a moment. "I…I guess you're right. Alright, I'll help you." Jason smiled at the son of Poseidon and patted him on the back.

"Thanks. I owe you one." Percy replied with a shrug of the shoulders and a "don't mention it."

The day was reaching its death as the sun slowly began to sink beyond the New Roman horizon. Jason had beckoned for both Piper and Annabeth to return and when they came back, Piper asked the question, "So what'd you guys talk about?"

Percy and Jason exchanged glances and Percy spoke up, "Nothing, really. Not sure why he told you two to leave in the first place." Annabeth looked straight at Percy with her stormy eyes, looking as if she hadn't bought it at all—but Piper did.

"Oh, alright," said Piper.

Annabeth proceeded to grab Percy's arm and pulled him, notifying the couple that they were departing. "We have to go now, but we'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" She didn't give them a chance to reply as she dragged him outside of the Forum.

**-PJ &TO!-**

Percy woke up of his own accord with Annabeth in his arms. They were in one of the houses in New Rome all by themselves, a sort of "gift" given to them for whenever either stayed. Of course, the house wasn't theirs as it was a rented one, but they didn't have to pay a single  _denarii_  for it. Percy lay clothed on a couch where the two of them had fallen asleep together the night prior; they were watching " _Don't Forget the Gods!"_ , a ridiculous show on Hephaestus TV where demigods or other spirits would receive a category and they would have to name all of the gods and goddesses that fell into it, and to the tune of a popular song, for  _drachma_.

The daughter of Athena was still sleeping, so Percy decided to be cautious to avoid disturbing her. After getting up, he changed clothes and brushed his teeth and used one of his souvenirs he brought from Camp Half-Blood to feed himself, a magic plate that put whatever you desired on it. After he ate, he allowed Annabeth—who was probably worn out from all that planning yesterday—to continue sleeping peacefully.

Deciding to take a stroll by himself, he left the house and traveled down the wondering streets of New Rome, not particularly going anywhere. And that's when he spotted Jason. "Jason!" Percy called. The son of Jupiter turned from his rushed walk to Zeus-knows-where, and looked at Percy.

"Oh, hey," Jason replied coolly. The two walked to each other and Jason continued, "I was actually looking for you, since I was thinking that the dancing practice might take a little more than just an hour."

Percy laughed behind his hand, "Yeah, it will."

"Hey, I'm not  _that_  bad," Jason responded.

"I'll have to be the judge of that," Percy teased.

They tacitly decided to walk together back to Jason's own "gift" house so they could get to work. Jason opened his door and held it for Percy. "After you, Perce." Percy raised an eyebrow yet again at Jason and hid a slight blush that was creeping on Percy's cheeks.  _That was…different_ , he thought.

The house was more spectacular than Percy's as there was a court yard with a fountain in the middle of his house. "That's certainly impressive," Percy said, looking at the spitting Cupid fountain. Even the gardens leading up to his house had more splendor, let alone the ones in the court yard. But Percy put no more thought into it as architecture was Annabeth's thing, not his. "What time is it, by the way?" he asked.

"It's 1 o'clock," Jason said. Percy's eyes got wider.  _I slept that long? Wow._  "So, shall we get started?"

"Um. Yeah," replied Percy.

"So…what do I do first?"

"Well the waltz is a complicated, yet simple dance. It's much simpler than everyone makes it out to be, in theory at least. What you need to do, since you'll be leading, is put your right hand on your partner's waist so you look like this." Percy then demonstrated doing the position in the air. "Then, you need to put your left arm out like this," again demonstrating, "and have your partner's right hand grab your hand. Then they'll put their left hand on your right shoulder."

"That's it? Really?" Jason inquired, sounding naïve.

"Well…no. But we need to work on that position first, before we can do anything." Percy looked away, face growing warmer. "And since I'm your partner right now, and you're the one who needs to do the leading…"

"I have to lead while you follow then. Okay," Jason said nonchalantly. The taller male walked up to Percy and did what he was instructed. He grabbed Percy's waist and pressed a bit too close for comfort according to Percy. "Like this?"

Percy refused to meet Jason's eyes, but still replied, "Yeah. Now just grab my hand…" His voice trailed off as he swallowed the lump in his throat.

Jason grabbed his hand and asked, "Is this okay?" Percy nodded and accidentally looked up, up into Jason's eyes. After what felt like forever—in all actually, about only 5 seconds—Percy shook his head as his face got hot.

"Uh, yeah, this is great."  _I've never been this close to another guy before, and I never imagined doing_ this _with Jason either. What did I get myself into?_  Jason smirked down at Percy's shyness.

"Before we continue, we should practice getting into this stance immediately so that you don't mess up when the real thing comes around," Percy advised. Jason nodded and they broke apart, Percy nervously brushing off his clothes with his hands. "So um…yeah. Again?" Percy asked.

The son of Jupiter got closer to Percy again as he put his hand around Percy's waist and put his arm out. Percy grabbed his hand with his own and, after remembering that he was supposed to, put his hand on Jason's shoulder.  _Why is my heart beating so fast?_  he asked himself.

Percy looked up and saw Jason's golden hair in the lighting of his home and saw how his hair was slightly frizzy and some stray stands of hair were out of place. He studied Jason's jawline and determined that, like most other campers thought, he looked rather attractive. And he saw his deep blue eyes that felt as if they bored into Percy's green ones…  _What am I thinking? No. Stop._

Percy found his face getting hot when Jason asked the question, "Something wrong?"

 

Jason couldn't help but smile when he noticed that Percy was studying him. He wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but he had a fair idea of what it could've been. He was still holding Percy, and pretty close at that, and felt comfortable holding the smaller male in his arms. It was almost as if Percy  _fit_  him, and so Jason enjoyed pressing his body up against the son of Poseidon.

"It's nothing," Percy said, "But now, all we need to do is work on our—erm, your footing. This is also fairly simple: while you lead, I mirror you. So start by taking a step towards me with your left foot, and I'll back up with my right."

Jason did as he was told and took a step while Percy took one back. "Good, now move your right foot in an upside down L-shape and step towards me." Again, Jason did this. After Percy instructed Jason the step-by-step process in the art of waltzing, Jason spoke up.

"Cool. But…I think that even though we're only practicing, I'm not in the right setting to actually practice, so I feel like I'm not doing my best at this. Do you think we could pick up where we left off after sunset? The lighting is much better for this type of thing."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding why Jason would want to stop right now, but he figured that he was more than glad to stop. Things were getting  _way_  too awkward for his liking. "Oh, okay. We'll continue at 10:30 then. It's darker than sunset and you can get the mood how you want with lights."

As Percy turned to leave his house, Jason watched him leave.  _He's…definitely an interesting guy,_  Jason thought while smirking. He put his hand in his pocket and turned himself when he heard the door open and close, proceeding to his courtyard in the middle of his house. The air was cool and the sun was not at all too hot for summer. He ran a hand through his hair. "What just happened in there?" he asked himself aloud. He sighed as he dropped his arm and observed the fish that were swimming in his fountain.

Jason didn't know why his own heart was beating faster than usual when he was holding Percy, nor did he want to know. All he really knew was that Percy looked…different today than other days.  _And what was that with the eye thing?_  Jason wasn't too sure what any of it all meant, but something minuscule in the back of his head sort of liked it.  _Woah. Okay, no,_  he thought.

Jason left his "gift" house and walked outside where a traveling merchant faun was advertising. "Get your demigod souvenirs for your mortal friends! Trick them with things that go past the Mist and dazzle them!" In a smaller, rapid voice, he said, "We are not liable for any resulting injuries that come from these products." The son of Jupiter rolled his eyes as the faun continued down the winding road with his traveling store cart.

Jason didn't know why he dismissed the son of Poseidon because now he too was bored. Apparently—at the moment—he thought that waltz dancing would be easier to do in a specific lighting because the mood was better.  _Or was that just an excuse to…? No way._  Jason looked up in thought and figured that he would be better off just going to find Piper and help her plan rather than spending too much time thinking about the little episode that happened just then with Percy.

**-PJ &TO!-**

The clock was ticking at 10:21 PM and Jason decided to leave Piper and return home. He entered his home and decided to wait for Percy. Jason guessed he had maybe eight or nine minutes before Percy returned, so he decided to fix himself up for no reason. He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror to find his hair slightly messed up from his normal look. Jason combed his hair with his hand.

When he deemed his hair was back to his normal state, he put on some cologne for Jupiter-knows-what reason. He proceeded to light some torches, which cast a dim lighting. Afterwards, he straightened his clothes and heard a knock on the door and went to find out who it was. Not to his surprise, he saw Percy standing at his doorway. Percy was looking to the side as if he were trying to act cool and asked somewhat shyly, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, help yourself," Jason replied while putting his arm out to signal his entrance. Percy walked in and Jason closed the door.

"So, you ready to continue where we left off?" Percy asked.

"Sure. I think I was holding you, no?" Jason smirked as he observed Percy's face flush a little.

"Yeah, only we were beginning to move as well," Percy corrected as he looked up at Jason. "I hope you remember the steps," he continued as he moved in front of Jason.

"Don't doubt me." Jason went to grab Percy again and Percy got into position.

 

"Now," Percy said, "Just do the same steps I taught you over and over, only turning this time." The son of Jupiter responded by starting with his right foot. "Wrong foot," teased Percy. Jason sighed, apologized, and corrected himself.

Percy was way too close to Jason, but there was no backing out now. Jason's chest was pressed up against his own, and he couldn't stop the delicious aroma that emitted from Jason.  _Gods, that smells good,_ Percy thought.  _I mean…Yeah. It smells alright,_  he quickly corrected himself. Jason was a quick learner, Percy observed, because Jason managed to keep the steps that Percy taught him. Step-by-step, everything was executed well, even if it was slower than the normal pace of the waltz.

"Let's try speeding this up, 'kay?" Percy asked Jason. Jason nodded his head and they went a little faster. After two more rounds of each of those steps, they were beginning to go at the normal pace of the waltz, both being comfortable. "Now watch your footing, you're beginning to mess up," warned Percy.

"I know, sorry," replied Jason. They continued doing the waltz, but Jason must have lost beat as they were beginning to lose their footing.

"Jason, watch it—"

Jason accidentally tripped. And Percy and Jason fell, with Jason on top of Percy. "Shit," was the first thing Percy said. "Ow."

Jason chuckled softly into Percy's neck, making Percy shiver. "Sorry about that," Jason said while slightly rising. "I thought I had it under control." Jason's breath smelled of mint chocolate as blue eyes looked into green ones.  _His face is_ way _too close to mine_ , thought Percy. With that thought, he found his face getting hotter and hotter by the millisecond. Jason's hair fell forward just a bit, shifting outside of his normal style while Percy realized that his hands were splayed on Jason's chest, which made him blush even more.

What really made Percy's face hot was when Jason's face got closer and his lips pressed his own. In shock, he didn't know what to do. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach, something that he never thought he would feel with a guy—let alone Jason, the prick that everyone talks so highly of. Jason pulled away and saw Percy's face riddled with confusion and shock. "Sorry," Jason breathed. "I didn't mean to—"

Jason was cut off as it was Percy's turn to kiss Jason. Jason kissed back slowly and sweetly, his lips tasting of mint chocolate as well. The son of Poseidon felt a wet muscle trace his lips as he opened his mouth to grant entrance willingly, both tongues fighting for dominance. Their tongues wrestled until Jason's became clearly the victor and Percy allowed him to explore his cavern.

Finally, they pulled away for breath. Both of them were breathing heavily as Percy's face was still hot and Jason was smirking down at the older male beneath him.  _What did I just…?_  Percy thought. But Percy didn't have much time to think about what he just did as he felt Jason's hand snake underneath his shirt and reach his nipple.

Percy let out an involuntary moan that was a little more feminine than what he would've wanted. He soon found out that his nipples were highly sensitive spots of his as he bit his lip in an attempt to suppress the embarrassing moans wanting to escape his mouth.

 

Jason caressed and massaged and pinched Percy's nipples as he continued to experiment. He had no idea what he was doing, but he must've been doing a good job since he solicited those moans that Jason just loved. Jason decided to lift Percy's shirt and lick his nipple, gently biting on it and apologetically sucking it. He switched to the other one, doing the same thing, earning another moan from Percy even when he bit his lip.

_Gods, he looks cute_ , Jason thought. Jason stopped to fully take Percy's shirt off, which Percy let him, and admired the boy underneath him. He observed Percy's chest rise and fall and went back to making out with him. After kissing him, he proceeded to moving to Percy's jaw, and then his neck, sucking and gently biting to leave his mark.  _Wait, why...?_

Jason snapped out of it as he lifted himself off of Percy. "What happened?" Percy asked. His face was flushed and his eyes were glazed with lust, while his hair was disheveled and his face had a look of confusion.

"What are we doing?" Jason asked in response.

Percy sat up and said, "I…don't know." Part of Jason  _really_  wanted to continue; to see the rest of Percy, to make him scream his name and have his body writhing underneath his. But he didn't want to push it with Percy.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want," Jason offered, albeit half-heartedly.

 

Percy heard the sadness in Jason's tone when he said that. Percy had  _wanted_ this, even though he didn't know it at first. His heart was beating fast and his breaths were slightly uneven, but Percy didn't care. He just wanted  _him_. "I… I want to," he said breathily, his cheeks scarlet.

Relying on instinct, the son of Poseidon grabbed Jason's shirt and pulled him in for a bruising kiss. The two worked to each other's rhythms, Percy daring to put his tongue out. Jason matched his and they fought in a dance for dominance as the younger teen pinned Percy to the ground with his arms over his head and Jason's hands on elder teen's wrists. "You're sure?" the blonde asked, his face hot.

Percy nodded with lust-filled eyes and Jason went back to teasing the son of Poseidon's nipples.  _Damn, this feels_ way _too good…_  Percy thought as he closed his eyes shyly out of pleasure. Percy attempted to ignore the tightness in the fabric of his jeans that's been there since the start of these little "touches" from Jason as he began to buck his hips forward, wanting attention.

But Jupiter's son wanted to play instead. Instead of going for the prize that Percy  _oh so wanted_  to be pleasured, he began to run his hands up and down his thighs instead, teasing Percy. He let out a whimper that was too girly for his liking and Jason smirked up at the older teen, more confident now than before with the sounds that he elicited from Percy's lips.

Percy abruptly opened his eyes when he felt Jason unbutton his jeans and pull them down without warning, his erection proudly standing up at attention against the fabric of his boxers. He could feel his face get hot as he looked with want towards the younger teen. Jason parted Percy's legs and slowly ran a hand up and down his legs, sending shivers throughout Percy and causing him to moan and buck his hips. Percy couldn't tell that Jason had no idea what he was doing, but he could tell that Jason sure as hell was enjoying messing with him. Literally.

When Jason's hands finally reached Percy's boxers, he paused at the waistband and smirked down at him. He began to play with the waistband by plucking it against Percy's waist, asking, "Do you like this?

Through half-lidded eyes glazed with lust, Percy replied, "Yes."

"Do you want me to continue?"

"Please."

"Please what?"

Percy could tell that Jason wanted nothing more than to get Percy to look weaker than him, but at the moment, he didn't care. All he cared about was getting what he wanted. And he wanted it  _now_. "Please, touch me," Percy begged shyly. Jason proceeded to slowly pull his boxers down, his erection springing out none too shyly with a little pre-cum on its head. After fully stripping Percy from the rest of his clothing and discarding it gods-know-where, leaving him stark naked, Jason paused and looked at the exposed teen before him, the blonde's lips slightly parted in astonishment.

Percy felt self-conscious, with Jason looking at him like that. He could feel his cheeks get hotter, if possible, and hated how he was so hard. Jason hadn't even done anything to him yet, he just teased him. But when Jason palmed his manhood, he couldn't help himself but to hiss. He could tell that the younger teen was experimenting, but it still felt  _great_. "Do you like this?" Jason asked not in a teasing tone but a purely cautious and experimental way, almost as if he was concerned.

Percy hadn't even noticed when Jason removed his hands from his wrists, nor did he even notice when he put his hands on Jason's toned chest. But when he realized, he blushed even harder and removed them, answering, "Y-yeah." He looked away shyly.

 

This made Jason change his facial expression from concerned to confident, not bothering to hide a smirk at the older teen. Percy began to moan embarrassingly when Jason started to kiss all over his body, leaving bruises on the inner thighs, his chest, and his abdomen. "You want me to make you feel good, Jackson?" Jason provoked. He growled lowly in Percy's ear, "Is that it? You want me to make you mine?" Jason thumbed Percy's head in his hand, playing with it and spreading the pre-cum.

"Uhn… Yes," Percy moaned quietly, choking out his words from pleasure.

The raven-haired teen looked really cute, writing underneath him like that.  _I wonder what happens if I do…_  Jason placed his hand around Percy's member, eliciting a moan.  _That's good, right?_  Beginning to stroke tantalizingly slowly, he wondered what else he could do to please him. He's never had sex before, as he was waiting until marriage, but he couldn't help but wonder… He began to pump faster and decided that he wanted to try something.

Taking two fingers, he put it to Percy's lips. "Suck," he ordered. And the older teen complied by taking in his digits and sucking generously, Jason mentally noting his red face as they held their gazes with each other—intensifying the feeling. He could feel his cock strain against its cloth prison, wanting nothing more than a little attention, but he focused on messing with Percy's balls, weighing them and sliding his thumb over them.

Removing the slick fingers from Percy's mouth, he then proceeded to slowly bring them to Percy's entrance. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or if this would even feel good, but instead put his lips to Percy's member as a distraction. The son of Poseidon gasped as Jason licked his head slowly and experimentally, all the while slowly shoving in his index finger.

It wasn't long until Jason decided to fully take Percy's erection in his mouth and for him to be fingering Percy's tightness. He added another finger. Another gasp. "Does it hurt?" Jason asked, taking a breath before resuming to suck his lover off.

Percy grabbed a shock of the blonde's hair and moaned wantonly. "N-no," he gasped, eyes shut. "Oh gods." Jason stopped sucking and kept on fingering him, enjoying the view that Percy was so generously giving him: an erect, leaking, and neglected cock as his legs were spread for Jason. His face, Jason noted, was the shade of a cherry and Jason couldn't help but smirk as he pumped his fingers in and out of him.

"You like this? Do you like when I'm fingering you?"

Percy gave Jason a weak death glare behind his blush, breathing heavily. "Y-yeah. Oh fuck. Jason!" he yelled. "Just fuck me already!" The son of Jupiter looked down at his friend, fingering him a little faster.

"Or what?" he challenged. Jason had no idea what he was doing, but he knew that he enjoyed making his rival squirm and beg. And he was also turned on by it.

Very turned on.

"Or…" Percy threw his head back. "Gods, just do it already!"

"Beg for it. I want you to scream my name and beg for it so everyone can hear," said Jason lustfully, to which he had no idea why. He didn't want  _anyone_  to hear them doing  _this_.

"J-Jason! Fuck me already! Fuck me hard, dammit!"

"If that's what you want, Perce." He didn't hesitate to remove his fingers and unzip his jeans only to discard them somewhere on the floor away from them. Pulling down his boxers, he put his naked body over Percy's and whispered huskily in his left ear, "Unless you have lube or want me to fuck you without it, you're gonna have to suck my dick," sending shivers down Percy's body. He rubbed his own exposed member against Percy's, enjoying the friction.  _Gods, this is hot as hell._

Percy's eyes went wide as realization hit him, his face flushing harder. "O-okay. Fine." Jason got off him and sat back, giving access for the Sea Prince to his member. Hesitantly, Percy said with wide eyes, "It's big." Jupiter's son heard him gulp and smirked, waiting for his rival. He watched as Poseidon's son got closer, closing his eyes and begin to suck. He couldn't hold back a moan as Percy bobbed up and down, sucking hard.

The raven-haired teen went to the bottom of his shaft and slowly licked up, sucking on his head when he reached it. He repeated the process again, only slower the next time. He licked a vein on the underside of Jason's shaft, eliciting a moan.  _Shit, he's good._  After a minute or so of Percy blowing Jason off, the blonde forcefully opened his eyes and saw that Percy was still hard. "You like sucking me off, don't you?"

Percy stopped sucking him with a  _plop!_  and looked up, blushing heavily. "It's lubricated enough," he said.

Putting a hand to Percy's chin, Jason said, "Then turn around so I can fuck you." Percy did so, and Jason teased his hole by rubbing his head against it.

"Jason, hurry up!" Percy begged.

"So impatient," Jupiter's son teased. He aligned his cock and slowly pushed in, causing his lover to moan loudly. Slowly going in further an inch at a time, he enjoyed the pressure from Percy's walls. "Fuck…You're so tight, Perce." He saw more and more stars the deeper he went inside.

"Nng…" was all Percy could say as the blonde pushed all the way to the hilt. He pulled out slowly and thrust in a little faster once Percy was adjusted to his size. He found his rhythm, beginning to thrust faster and faster each time as Percy moaned not-at-all-too-quietly in front of him. Putting one hand on his lover's hip, he wanted to see if Percy was enjoying this as much as he was and found an erect penis leaking pre-cum and began to pump it in time with his thrusts. The Sea Prince howled in pleasure, arching his back as Jason thrust harder into him. "Fuck, oh yes! Harder!"

Getting close to the edge of climax, Jason suddenly came to a stop and pulled out. Dazed, Percy asked, "Wha…? Why'd you sto—"

"Turn around," Jason cut him off demandingly. Percy did as he was told and got on his back, only to be picked up by the younger teen. Jason shoved him against a wall, guiding the older teen's legs to wrap around his waist and then shoved back into Percy, literally fucking him against the wall.  _This…is new._

As Jason thrust, Percy moaned. Jason wasn't aware of the sparks that generated around them and Percy didn't realize that the water in the fountain in the middle of the house was moving violently and sporadically. And then Percy screamed louder than he thought possible, "Fuck, Jason! Right there!" Jason had found it. He began to hit only Percy's prostate, abusing the gland inside him as Percy couldn't help but scream Jason's name in the ensuing pleasure that came.

Continuing to pound into him, Jason soon found himself ready to cum. Percy beat him, "I'm gonna c-cum…!" Percy climaxed all over Jason and his' chest, clenching around Jason's member. Like a chain reaction, Jason soon followed, thrusting into Percy hard one last time, filling him up. Jason picked the older teen up and placed him on the ground before collapsing next to him, breathing just as heavily as Percy was.

"Dammit…Jason…" Percy said in between labored breaths.

"What?"

"N-nothing…" There was a pause for breathing as Percy looked around the room to see that a clock read 12:04 AM. "H-happy…birthday," he said before he passed out. Jason couldn't help but smirk right before he too passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment!


	2. Cue: The Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So regardless of the story's reception, I realized that it is better to upload the story here. Again, to my few readers, do as you like!
> 
> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belongs to Rick Riordan.
> 
> I love anyone who dares to read further! Enjoy the story.

When Percy woke up, he had no idea where he was. He slowly forced his heavy eyelids to open as blinding light flooded his vision. He squinted immediately and put a hand over his eyes to shade himself. Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands, he pulled himself up to a sitting position, only to be greeted with an aching pain in his rear. If he wasn't awake before, he was now as his eyes went wide with pain and he pursed his lips in an attempt to silence himself.

He spread his arms out on the bed comforter, flattening it on his body as he looked around and scanned the unfamiliar room in surprise. There was daylight pouring through a window to the son of Poseidon's left displaying a walled garden with two ash trees, a Cupid fountain, and some flower beds holding multi-colored azaleas and impatiens enclosed by red clay edging. Percy looked away to find the comforter to be a red-gold pattern, the bed frame to be made out of mahogany, and the floor to be made of light wooden planks.

A painting of Bacchus pouring wine in people's cups while flying hung high on the tan wall as a digital clock read 12:34 PM. A nightstand held a marble figurine of Jupiter in a toga standing upright, and a wooden arch separated the bedroom from the adjacent room. He scratched the back of his head with his right hand and realized he was naked.

Memories of the previous night rushed into the sea prince's mind and he felt a wave of heat spread up from his neck to his face as he remembered all the events that occurred. His moans, his flushed face, his labored breaths and messy hair all came back to an embarrassed Percy. He couldn't help but feel self-conscious as he pulled his legs in to hug them, purposefully keeping himself covered by the comforter as he recalled vividly his actions from last night. And then he remembered Jason.

Jason. His face flushed more when he remembered putting his lips to Jupiter's son's member, and when Jason entered Percy, much to Percy's—at the time—wanton delight. He hadn't noticed the blood rush to his groin until he was fully erect, forming a tent under the comforter after relaxing his body to a regular sitting position. He blushed even more, wondering why he got hard just from thinking about what conspired. What made his embarrassment even worse was that he remembered he remained erect throughout the entire thing, even when the blonde was pounding into him.

To redirect his mental state from his transgressions, he began to think how he ended up in a bed. If he recalled correctly Percy should've been lying on the floor right next to Jason, stark naked. What confused him even more was that Jason was nowhere to be seen. He slowly rose from the bed so as to avoid any more pain shooting through his lower backside and searched around the room. Thankfully, he lost his erection when he began to panic about where his clothes were. Surely Annabeth would kill him if he showed up in different clo— _Annabeth_.

_Shit_. Annabeth would  _totally_  freak when she found out about what happened. Unless… Would she find out? It's no use lying to her, but then again, what would she do if she found out? Probably break his neck or worse, lecture him to death. Percy put his arms to the side of his head as he grabbed his head, freaking out. He jumped when he heard a voice from the other side of the room.

A shirtless Jason stood leaning on the wall, his right hand in his purple pajama-pants pocket and his left holding a white mug of coffee. His blond hair was neatly brushed and his blue eyes were piercingly looking down at Percy. "Having trouble there, Perce?" he asked, chuckling softly before bringing the mug to his lips to have a sip of coffee.

Percy looked at Jason, bewildered. "N-no. I was just trying to figure some stuff out, is all," he tried to say coolly. He raked a hand through his messy raven hair. "What're you doing here anyways? What am I doing here?" He eyed Jason's body, noting the perfectly toned body and the blond hair that the light in the window just so happened to hit perfectly once more.

"Well, it's my house so I figured I should be here," Jason replied, smirking when Percy gave him a "no shit" look. "Nah, the party doesn't start until seven, so I have plenty of time to get ready. You're here because I was nice enough to carry you to a bed so you could sleep peacefully, sea  _princess_." He gave another go at his coffee, raising both eyebrows in a challenging manner while never breaking eye contact.

Percy scowled at Jason, scoffing. "Whatever. Thanks for that, though," Percy said a bit shyly. He raked another hand through his hair and sighed, "Just glad I didn't wake up on the cold floor, is all." He purposefully avoided the topic of  _last night_ , knowing that'd only lead to an awkward conversation. He was surprised at how casual Jason was acting, as if the night before never happened—probably for the best, anyway.

"No problem," Jason said casually, taking a long drink from his coffee again. When he finished, he asked, "Hey, want some breakfast? I made some scrambled eggs and pancakes with blueberries in them." He stopped leaning on the archway and pointed his thumb back over his shoulder and tilted his head for a second in that direction, indicating the kitchen.

"Uh… Yeah, sure. Thanks again, I guess," Percy said. He began to walk forward but Jason stopped him with his voice.

"Shouldn't…you go put on some pants first?" Jason said, deliberately looking down at Percy's groin. Jason's face flushed a bit but went unnoticed as he continued to look at Percy, who looked down and remembered he was fully naked and exposed, all for Jason. Percy blushed hard and covered himself with the closest pillow he could find.

"Well don't look!" Percy exclaimed embarrassedly. "Besides, I don't even know where my clothes are!" He frantically looked around for  _any_  article of clothing that he could wear, avoiding Jason's gaze. Jason on the other hand was laughing at Percy's embarrassment. He quickly drank the rest of his coffee and handed Percy an oversized t-shirt. "What's this?" Percy asked, flustered.

"It's a shirt. Your clothes are in the washer and I don't think I have any pants that'll fit you," Jason said seriously at the raven-haired boy's exasperated reaction. He continued, "Don't give me that look. At least it'll cover you, and it's better than walking around here naked. And please, do cover up."

Percy quickly put on the shirt, taking note of its length. It was long enough to cover himself and actually went to just above his knees. "There's still a breeze," Percy muttered quietly. He tried to pull on the shirt to make it longer, to no avail. Jason couldn't help but laugh at his failed attempts, and turned around, beckoning Percy to follow him into the kitchen.

The kitchen itself was lavish, Percy thought. The ceiling was high and indented in square patterns that ran for the entire room, the outlines gilded in gold. At the east end of the room—to the left of the door from the bedroom—was a white arch with elaborate engravings painted in by black that led to the courtyard. The archway and the classical Roman windows provided for a boastful amount of light pouring into the kitchen, illuminating the room. In the middle was an island, its counter made of pure white granite, which housed a bowl of fresh fruit—at least, it seemed fresh to Percy, anyway. The floor was white tile, patterned with black tiles to form diamonds every so often. The lightwood cabinets hung over the stove and lined the walls, and unpowered recess lights lined the bottom of them.

Percy felt uncomfortable walking into a somewhat open room—looking eerily at the courtyard opening—when all he was wearing was a shirt that didn't cover him too well. He took to sitting at a stool at the island while Jason prepared their breakfast. Jason walked over to the sea prince and placed his plate down for him. Percy thanked him and blushed slightly, while Jason took his seat next to him on his own stool and put his plate down.

Percy fiddled with his shirt, trying futilely to elongate it but it kept on springing back up, much to his chagrin. "Well… Eat," Jason commanded softly. Percy looked at him questioningly.

"Am I supposed to eat this with my hands?" He looked down at his plate to point out that Jason forgot the silverware. Jason sprang up quickly from his stool, nearly falling over.

"Oh! Right, here," Jason said as he went to a drawer and got two forks for them and sat back down. Now it was Percy's turn to laugh at Jason's embarrassment. "Hey, I wouldn't be laughing if I were you," Jason retaliated by looking down at Percy's lap.

Percy's face heated and pulled down on his shirt some more. He tentatively grabbed his fork and began to nibble at the pancakes. His mind wandered off a bit again, heading towards the ominous thought of what Annabeth and Piper would do if they found out. He stared blankly out the window, absently eating and twirling his fork on the plate when he was chewing. He hadn't even heard Jason calling him until about the third time.

"Perce!"

The raven haired teen blinked and faced Jason. "Yeah?"

"You're quiet. From you, that's never a good thing." Jason gave his serious face and looked hard at Percy.

"Sorry, it's just… Annabeth and Piper. What's gonna happen?" Percy looked out the archway again, thinking.

The blonde's eyes darkened and he put down his fork. "Nothing's going to happen because they're not going to find out." He put his hand on Percy's shoulder in a friendly manner, to which Percy jumped slightly.

Percy looked confused at Jason. "So…We're going to lie?"

"No. We're just not going to say anything about it." Jason withdrew his hand back and went back to eating. "Actually, let's not… _talk_ …about this at all anymore."

_Now that_ , Percy thought,  _I can agree on_. Things were already way too uncomfortable for his liking and he didn't really want to think about any of  _that_. Not to mention, it was way too embarrassing. Just the thought of Jason running his hand up and down his thigh teasingly and Jason's hot lips making bruises on his nape, and his back being pressed against a wall as he got mercilessly pounded into—

Jason cleared his throat. "Um, Perce?" His face was red and he suddenly found much interest in his kitchen cabinets.

Percy didn't realize his growing arousal until it began to poke out of his shirt. His eyes widened and he squeaked, quickly pulled his shirt over it with his blush now renewed as he looked back at the courtyard. "I-Its... I wasn't…"

"Percy…" Jason breathed softly. He looked at Percy and put a finger underneath his chin, turning his head so they looked at each other. Poseidon's son looked up at him with embarrassed, confused eyes. Jason gulped and leaned forward, capturing Percy's lips with his own.

The elder teen was taken aback, blushing more profoundly, but gave in and closed his eyes to kiss back. It was a soft, tender kiss; one that let out all the emotion of confusion and regret and lust out—one that, however, ultimately meant that they were  _over_.

It was Jason who pulled back, both of them breathing heavily. "We can't tell them," he said. "And this," he paused to make a circular motion with both his hands gesturing the two of them, "this never happened."

Percy nodded—it was all he could do to not develop stronger feelings for Jason. He was already harboring dangerous emotions and he wasn't sure if Jason felt the same way. But he agreed that Annabeth and Piper could  _never_  figure out, lest something terrible happen to the world as he knew it. He looked down at his plate, not really hungry anymore.

**-PJ &TO!-**

Leo was happy that he was finally able to figure out how to use Archimedes' sphere and was really enjoying himself when he began to make statues dance or play rock, paper, scissors with other campers. One of the Roman campers, daughter of Fortuna, was excellent at the game and had a reputation around the camp for having good luck when it came to mini-games. She had a streak going for her—she hadn't lost a single rock, paper, scissors match in the three years since she started.

Leo, whose face sported a mischievous smile to it, heard of the rumors of the camper's legendary skill. He studied her like he would study a machine; he watched her play, saw how she worked. Leo came to two conclusions to her victories: she was both lucky and she watched carefully at the muscle movements of her opponent so she knew what to pick. The son of Hephaestus decided to challenge her the day after he found out.

When they played against each other Leo used an automaton, knowing that she wouldn't be able to read the muscle movements of it. They played and the gods were not in her favor but in Leo's—he had won and defeated her streak. Leo gave her a devilish smirk, patted her back and walked away triumphantly as she stood in the streets of New Rome, a devastated look on her face and a swath of onlookers giving the Hispanic looks of utter surprise, admiration and jealousy.

At least that's how Leo remembered it. So  _maybe_  he exaggerated his memories but he knows he beat her fair and square. "She deserved it," he murmured to himself, not at all feeling guilty. He was sitting on a chair in his "gift" home surrounded by a blast furnace, a worktable, and numerous schematics littering the floor. He was messing with Archimedes' sphere, seeing what kind of machines he can make whiz with the touch of a button when he was struck with an idea. He bolted up out of his seat and went to his workbench to get started immediately.

"What if…" Leo whispered while picking up a wrench, some scraps of metal, and some screws. "What if something happens to our homes while we're all away? We'll be leaving for Camp Half-Blood soon, so we should have some cameras around our houses for security."

Within the span of a minute, Leo managed to make a camera the size of a pea. "Wouldn't want to have some faun coming in and stealing, would we?" Leo held up the camera to the light. He smiled and went to a larger room and got to work on building individual television screens. After about an hour, he set up a security room complete with wires, a Lego keyboard and nine screens. Eight would be for Annabeth, Frank, Grover, Hazel, Jason, Nico, Percy, and Piper while the ninth would be for Leo, one for everyone with a "gift" house.

The security room complete and set up, Leo registered 27 cameras so that there were three cameras for each house. He didn't want to freak any of his friends out so he secretly visited their homes while they were away or sleeping and installed the cameras in locations that would cover the houses but remain unnoticed—in bookshelves, next to indoor plants, around figurines, or under kitchen cabinets.

It was one day before Jason's birthday party and Leo knew that by the time of the party, he wouldn't have had an opportunity to install the cameras so he decided to do it then. By the time he was complete, it was six in the morning so Leo went back to messing with some of the Romans in New Rome to pass the time by scaring unsuspecting pedestrians as they walked passed a statue under the control of the sphere.

He didn't return back to his home until Terminus screamed at him about the nonexistent curfew at one in the morning towards the Pomerian Line. Leo was exhausted from not sleeping at all that day so he lazily walked back home. When he got back, Hephaestus' son went to check the security room to make sure the cameras were in working order.

Leo watched with tired eyes at the screens viewing the demigods doing various activities in their daily lives. He fast-forwarded each video to get through the recordings. At 11:00 AM he saw Hazel and Frank in Frank's house sitting on a couch and talking. At 4:00 PM he saw Piper and Annabeth meet with a couple of designers from New Rome for Jason's party. At 11:45 PM he saw Jason and Percy dancing with each other and found this to be odd.

He slowed the video recording to normal speed and watched, smirking. "I'm  _so_  going to embarrass them with this." But things quickly turned for the worse as Leo saw the two fall. A couple seconds later he saw the two demigods make out, and then get  _very_  intimate with each other.

His eyes went wide with surprise. He knows he shouldn't be watching something like this, but  _this_ … He tried to look away but found his eyes fixed on the screen. A porno right in front of him, between two of his closest friends, was being played before his eyes, burning his vision. Leo felt sick on the inside as he begun to think of Annabeth and Piper. Leo watched in horror and embarrassment as Percy's expression was clear for the camera as Jason penetrated the son of Poseidon repeatedly.

It took him all of his willpower but Leo pressed some of the keys on the Lego keyboard and shut off the videos. In less than a second, Leo was bathed in darkness and left alone with nothing but the feelings of confusion and nausea in the pit of his stomach.  _I have to tell_.

…

Leo woke up the next day perfectly fine. There were birds chirping outside and the furnace in his house was put out. Suddenly, Leo was reminded of what he viewed last night and was visited with feelings of nausea all over again, surprised that he didn't light his bed on fire during his sleep because of that. A sweat broke out as he began to think what he was going to do.

Looking at the clock and discovering that it was 10:27 AM, Leo knew he had less than eight hours to figure out what he was going to do about the "situation". He could  _not_  tell anyone, which he could play off as not knowing at all because no one knows he planted the cameras, or he  _could_  tell Annabeth and Piper and possibly see Armageddon break out between the couples. Leo was torn—if he told them, he would risk seeing his friends getting into an argument in which they might never recover, or he could remain silent but knew would eventually bite him and his friends in the buttocks for letting the situation get worse over time.

The popular saying "time heals all wounds" wouldn't necessarily apply here—and Leo knew this because when working with machines, time actually rusts and deteriorates them—so Leo was frustrated. He had to tell someone,  _anyone_ , but knows it had to be either Piper or Annabeth…or both. He got up and paced around his room to figure out what he was going to do. If he told Percy and Jason that he knew, Leo would probably be told to keep quiet and make the situation even worse. But if he told either of their girlfriends, all Hades would break loose.

Leo put his hands to the side of his head in frustration and yelled. " _Dios mío_ ," he muttered to himself under his breath.  _This is what I get for trying to protect my friends_ , he thought. Pacing some more, Leo found that just standing in his room wouldn't help him so he got dressed and went to eat breakfast. Although he ordered scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns from one of the plates borrowed from Camp Half-Blood that spawns food, he wasn't in the mood to eat but he shoved food down his throat anyways. He had to come up with what to do and he had to come up with it fast.

The idea for what to do next hit him like a faun throwing a brick at an unsuspecting passerby. He realized that he should just be honest and tell Annabeth. Even though she might get mad, she of all people would know what to do with the footage. Maybe the best idea, maybe the worst idea, he was going to stick with it regardless and not change his mind. A couple of minutes passed and he got up, left his home and went to look for Annabeth outside.

The only bad thing with New Rome is that, like Rome, its streets are just as confusing. He didn't have Hazel to come and tell him where to go because she could just  _feel_  it so he had to guess where the blonde-haired stormy-eyed woman was. He checked a piazza, the Forum, asked Terminus—to no avail. The sun was overhead so he assumed it was around 11:00 or 12:00. He knew not why his conviction was to go and speak to Annabeth other than not knowing what to do, but he felt as if he  _had_  to, like a certain duty to report the event as it unfolded similar to a news anchor.

Navigating the streets, up and down, through coffee shops and delis, Leo began to be frustrated that he couldn't find her anywhere. Finally, out of frustration or wit he couldn't tell, he decided to create automaton birds to survey New Rome and search for the missing girl. Leo chose to sit down on a park bench and wait for his birds to return to him so he could relax.

Around 15 minutes or so later, one of the five birds deployed lands next to Leo's side on the park bench and spits out a card written "ROMAN BALLROOM" in still-wet black ink. His left hand picked up the card and watched in unnecessary shock as the ink slowly rolled down the white cardstock, eventually dripping onto the floor through the cracks of the bench. He face palmed with his right hand as he realized that that's the only place she  _would_  be. Leo petted the mechanical bird and powered it down as he made the walk of shame to the ballroom.

**-PJ &TO!-**

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a woman healthy, wealthy and wise," muttered Annabeth, reciting Benjamin Franklin's famous proverb adapted for her as she turned off her alarm clock at 6:00 AM. Sitting up, she yawned and stretched and removed the sheets to get up. The blonde made the bed, making sure the pillows were lined up perfectly, and went to the bathroom to get ready. She put her hair in a ponytail and got prepared for the busy day to come.

Grey eyes locked forward, she walked with a fierce business-like passion to her destination as her computer-like brain began to go over the to-do for the day:

1\. Follow up with the caterer

2\. Iris-message the flower company

3\. Make sure the interior designer has all the materials

4\. Begin setting up the ballroom

5\. Follow up with the disc jockey

6\. Follow up with the pianist

7\. Eat (briefly)

8\. Finish setting up the ballroom

9\. Get dressed

10\. Celebrate

Annabeth was sure Piper would be satisfied with all they had planned together. It's not every day that one of their friends has a birthday and she figures it is best they all just had some time to relax now that there's no quests, no plot to destroy the world or no eminent danger that seems to put a damper in anyone's plans. No, Jason will have a good time if it kills him.

Piper was off doing her own thing most likely—she had planned other things as well and needed to take care of them herself. That or maybe she was still sleeping but Annabeth doubted it. Piper's always wanted to throw Jason a birthday party but never could because something always came up like the aforementioned end of the world problem, so for Piper's sake, Annabeth figured she would do her best to throw the greatest birthday party.

She reached the restaurant from which she's catering and immediately got down to business, making sure everything is going along well and that nothing wrong has happened. When the blonde deemed everything to be satisfactory, she accessed that inner part of her brain that acts like a GPS around New Rome considering the fact that she took the time to memorize the map and layout of it. She raced from building-to-building, making sure everything was on schedule, making Iris messages to those who were too far out of reach or out of her way when going to her next destination. Before everything was finished, the sun was midway in the sky and she checked to wristwatch to find that it was already 11:30 AM.

Wiping her forehead of sweat with the back of her right hand, Annabeth went to the ballroom and began barking out orders to everyone who was able-bodied. Annabeth had practically lectured the flower company on the theory of general relativity as punishment for not being able to do bouquets of 17 flowers instead of 16 or 18.

Piper had walked in the ballroom looking stressed, immediately coming over to talk to Annabeth. "Annabeth, I just spoke with the pianist rental and they said that all of the remaining satyrs were booked and that only fauns were available. What are we going to do?" Piper had the look of someone who didn't know what to do next—a silent rose in a chorus of azaleas whose rosy petals folded brilliantly but still out of place and unsure of where to go. "I thought we asked them for a satyr a couple of days ago!"

"We have to adapt," Annabeth said coolly as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sure a faun will be just fine." Piper McLean visibly calmed, Annabeth's voice confident and soothing enough to do so. A second later the older girl removed her hand and began pacing around the large and still-not-finished ballroom with Piper, talking. "So what did you get Jason?" the daughter of Athena asked her casually.

"Oh, you know, this  _thing_ ," Piper said as she blushed, looking down. Annabeth giggled and nudged the daughter of Aphrodite to keep going. "You know, one of those promise rings?" Piper couldn't help but feel embarrassed and missed the softened expression on Annabeth's face.

"Aw, that's so cute," said Annabeth, trying to hold in a small laugh. "I think it's sweet."

"You're laughing at me," Piper voiced her worries.

"No, no, I just—" Annabeth cleared her throat and put on a serious face. "I think it's cute."

"Really?" The daughter of Aphrodite began fiddling with the edge of her shirt. "I wouldn't normally get him something like this."

"Which is why he'll be all the more happy to see it," replied Annabeth confidently.

Just then, a crash of metal was heard somewhere in a hall and a scream sounded. A certain Hispanic named Leo had just come tumbling in the main ballroom, causing the biggest disturbance in the quiet room. The two girls put their hands on their hips and looked at him, eyebrows raised. Leo looked up from his crashed seated position and said, "I need to tell you both something."

"Can it wait? We're in the middle of something," Piper asked, clearly upset at being interrupted from her talk with Annabeth.

"No, it's urgent. You need to—"

"I'm sure whatever it is," Annabeth interjected, "it can wait. We're finishing the party details right now."

"Yes, but you need to—"

"'No' means no, Leo. It can wait," Piper said. Both girls saw a panicked look on Leo's face but decided whatever Leo had to say was less important than finishing the party.

With the help of Piper, Leo got up from the floor and walked away, his hands in the air muttering something along the lines of, "Don't say I didn't tell you."

Annabeth was wondering what that was all about but decided she needed to focus on the party more. "Now Piper, where were we?"

…

Several hours, an impromptu changing of the number of flowers to bouquets and an interestingly fanatic pianist faun later, Annabeth was getting ready for the party. It was 6:30 PM and Annabeth had gone to some of the Venus kids at the Roman camp to do her makeup and hair. She had picked out an intricate dress, woven with silk from a couple of the nymphs' homes back at Camp Half-Blood. It was an elegant blue with layer after layer of different wide straps, a cyan midsection and an array of sapphires that, depending on the position of the light, would shine a light blue or an even deeper blue than the dress giving the illusion of twinkling rain dripping down. Her blonde hair was in beautiful curls and her nails were painted to match her dress perfectly.

Looking in the mirror she hoped she wasn't too flashy. Everyone who's going was told to wear their best and the dress happened to be a gift from the Muses for helping with recovering some lost art as a quest. She heard Piper calling her name and went to check on her, smiling wide when she saw something so uncharacteristic of Piper on her. Piper wore an emerald green dress that gave off the image of the cloth swirling around her until it reached her feet. Green shoulders covered Piper perfectly, with two lighter green bows on either shoulder, her hair also in perfect curls and makeup. "I don't like this fancy dress. The Muses did a little much when they gave us this gift for helping them."

"You look stunning, Piper. Jason would be enthralled to see you," Annabeth told her. Piper looked at the body-length mirror and turned, twirled and walked. She scowled. "What's wrong?"

"I've just been so nervous," Piper said, looking at herself in the mirror. "I wanted to do this for Jason but I don't want anything to go wrong." She put on her emerald earrings and turned towards Annabeth. "And I don't know when to give him the promise ring."

"Just do it whenever it feels right," said the daughter of Athena. "He'll love it." She continued getting ready and thought if maybe they were just a little too flashy. She shrugged it off and spoke to Piper, "Ready? Let's head to the party." Piper nodded and the two of them grabbed their purses.

"I really don't see the point behind all of this jewelry and the purse," Piper stated. "I never really liked being a  _girly_  girl—"

"No, maybe you haven't. But it's nice every once in a while to go out and feel pretty," Annabeth replied after cutting Piper off. They walked out of the house and began walking towards the ballroom. The sun was descending slowly and there was plenty of time to get to make it to their destination. As they walked, a couple of fauns cat-whistled them and so did some of the New Roman patrons. The two ladies ignored them both and continued.

Piper sighed. "I still can't get used to walking in heels. My feet hurt already!" she complained. "I don't know why I wanted to do the waltz; I don't even know how I'm going to dance with these heels." Annabeth laughed and they continued walking.

"You know, as the daughter of Aphrodite, you automatically know how to walk in heels right?" Annabeth said matter-of-factly. "You should be able to dance with them on, too." Piper rolled her eyes.

It was 7:05 PM and the ladies walked in the ballroom and saw only two people so far. Annabeth told the disc jockey to wait until later while Piper went to the pianist faun to begin playing classical music. The food was being served and, as 30 minutes passed, a large influx of people began. By 7:45, almost all of the party guests had arrived, every gentleman in a tuxedo and every lady in a ball dress. Waiters were serving nonalcoholic drinks and small foods while people were dancing with each other. Everyone, Greek or Roman, was there, in a room surprisingly big enough to fit all of them.

Annabeth went and found Percy a couple minutes into the party, Percy being a little distant. She noticed he was acting strangely but decided not to ask about it, knowing she had to attend to some other business before she could actually start dancing with her boyfriend and that he was probably just worrying why Jason wasn't at the party yet.

Piper was around the entrance, talking to people but with a worried look on her face. Walking up to her and the group she was with, Annabeth asked, "Hey, where's Jason? I thought he was coming with Percy."

"I don't know," Piper broke from the group she was with to answer. "I thought so too but Percy just said he didn't know where he was. I hope he comes soon, he's missing his party!" Just as Piper finished her sentence, Annabeth noticed Jason walk in the ballroom through the back door. Annabeth tapped Piper's shoulder and looked at Jason to gesture she should go. "I think it's time," Piper excused herself as she walked away. Annabeth smiled, knowing she was going to give him the ring.

Annabeth saw Piper go up to Jason, pull on his sleeve and walk with him to a back room. Meanwhile, the blonde went to catch up with Percy and dance with him. "Hey, Seaweed Brain," she said smirking.

Percy jumped and turned around to look at Annabeth. "H-hey," he said while putting his hand to scratch the back of his head. He seemed to be making sure to avoid Annabeth's eyes.

"You okay? Do you have a fever or something?" She looked at Percy with caring eyes but could tell Percy was nervous about something. She wanted him to have a fun time, too—that's the main reason she wore the blue dress by the Muses because it's his favorite color. There was a certain psychology behind her logic; someone's favorite color is said to calm a person down and help them relax, and since none of them ever relax, it's the least she could do for her boyfriend.

"No, does it look like I'm sick?" he said and chuckled kind of nervously. "I'm just glad to be here is all, haha." His hand moved from the back of his head to his neck. Something didn't sit right with Annabeth.

"Right… Anyways, aren't you going to ask me to dance?" Annabeth raised a challenging eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah. Er, may I have this dance?" He put his hand out and Annabeth grabbed it. The pianist was playing waltzing music and the couple danced closely together.

Annabeth put her head on his shoulder, the black tuxedo's soft fabric grazing her chin. She whispered in his ear, "When did you learn how to waltz?"

"My mom taught me. We had to go to a dance for some party when I was younger. I don't remember what it was for other than it being one of my step-cousin's birthdays, but that was forever ago. In the end we didn't go because school thought I was too much of a delinquent and I had to transfer."

"That was nice of your mom," she parted from his shoulder and studied him. His hair was parted slightly and his face was clean-shaven. She looked at him in the eyes. "Maybe we can visit her again. I haven't had the chance to say anything to her in a while."

Percy scowled slightly. "Uh, yeah, sure."

"You know, something's been really strange with—"

She was interrupted by Leo Valdez. "Annabeth!" The couple broke apart and Annabeth looked at Percy and then at Leo. "I  _need_  to talk to you about something. It can't wait."

Leo was wearing a tuxedo with a black jacket and white pants and he was breathing hard. "What is it?" Annabeth asked.

"I can't tell you here. I need to show you it," Leo said. Percy tilted his head in confusion and looked at Annabeth as if to ask "What?"

"Alright, c'mon Percy," Annabeth said.

"Uh, this is something just you need to know about. Party stuff, you know?" Leo lied. Annabeth began to get worried. If Leo began to be involved in the party and neither Piper nor herself saw something, then the problem must be bad.

"You don't mind Perce?" Annabeth had a "sorry" look in them as she eyed her boyfriend.

"No, go ahead, I'll wait here," the raven-haired boy responded.

Annabeth thanked him and she and Leo walked away from Percy. Before they left the ballroom, Annabeth saw Jason and Piper returning, Piper seemingly happy and Jason with a smile. Annabeth was happy for the two and it seemed like Jason accepted the promise ring without embarrassing Piper. She heard Piper grab a microphone and say before they left, "And now, the birthday boy, Jason!" A sound of applause went off and Piper continued, "Time for the couple's dance."

The sun was going down and they exited the ballroom, Annabeth upset that she had to leave the dance. "Leo, what's this about that you couldn't tell me in there?" she asked.

"It's something you need to see. I can't explain," he said as they continued to walk hurriedly. The two walked to Leo's house and went to a large room with nine televisions in it. Only one of them was on but nothing was playing. "Okay, what you're about to see might be painful but I don't know what to do and I thought you would be the best person to tell."

"Show me," Annabeth said confidently. Leo raised his eyebrows and began pressing keys on his Lego keyboard and the screen awoke with animation. It showed Percy and Jason in Jason's house together. "What is this?"

"Just keep on watching," he said quietly.

The video kept on playing. It morphed into the two of them dancing together and Annabeth couldn't help but suppress a laugh. "What, Jason couldn't dance?" Leo just shook his head and gestured to keep looking. She did. As the video progressed, Annabeth's heart sunk. She wanted to look away but for some reason, she couldn't. It was heart wrenching to keep watching.

A wave of dread and depression washed over her. Confusion, anger, sadness, and shock all muddled within her and fused together to create an inexplicable set of emotions. She felt lost and misused—but worst of all, she felt  _betrayed_. Part of her brain seemed to stop functioning altogether, a serious problem for a child of Athena. She was speechless as tears began to form in her eyes.

It only took a couple more seconds of watching, however, for her sadness to dissipate into anger. "Turn the video off, I've seen enough," she commanded. Leo pressed a couple of Legos and the screen went black. "Piper… Piper is not going to be happy about this."

"I figured," Leo said. He was standing there awkwardly.

"You don't get it. Piper gave Jason a promise ring," Annabeth said while staring at the blank multitude of screens.

"Oh. Dang." She could tell Leo didn't really know what to say.

"How could… How could Jason do this? How could  _Percy_? I trusted him!" she shouted angrily. Leo, wisely, chose not to say anything. "I had faith in him! And the worst part is that he cheats on me with a  _boy_!" The Hispanic in the room just backed up awkwardly and waited for her to finish venting. "He said he loved me, but I guess it was a lie." Pause. "But my mother just gave me an idea."

Leo perked up. "Yeah?"

"Can you hook up this video feed to the projector in the ballroom?" she asked vengefully. There was a fire in her eyes that seemed like they would burn even Hephaestus's blacksmith hands.

"Annabeth… What are you planning to do?" he asked cautiously.

"He wants to cheat me like this and then not tell me about it? I'll make him regret this," she said with an ounce of poison in her words.

"A-are you sure Athena gave you this idea?" Leo tentatively asked.

"My mom is a goddess of war, and this— _this_  means war." Annabeth had wanted revenge. She was fueled by a rage that would not be quelled until she got what she had wanted. Leo would not stop her. Piper would not stop her. The forces of Olympus would not even stop her. Leo began to get to work on the wiring for the recordings. "I have a question for you though, Leo," Annabeth asked coldly.

Leo gulped. "Yes?"

"Why do you have a camera in Jason's house?"

"Well, you see, er, I uh, just thought that I would…" He laughed nervously. He looked at Annabeth who was nowhere near smiling and stopped laughing. "I wanted to make sure no one would do anything to our homes while we were gone. I didn't know I would see this!"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes but began to help Leo with the wiring. The two managed to get a long wire to go from the house to the ballroom building and brought it into the technical room inside. Leo worked his magic by hooking it up to the projector while Annabeth went to the ballroom floor.

She spotted Piper dancing with Jason and went up to them. "Piper, I need you to come with me," Annabeth said politely while giving Jason a dirty look.

"But I—. Fine, Jason?" Piper said, looking at Jason pleadingly. Jason just nodded, confused, and they stopped, Piper picking up her dress to walk away with Annabeth to the front of the room. "What's wrong? And where have you been?"

"I'm about to do something that will explain itself. I just wanted you to be by me when it happened. Be ready," Annabeth told Piper.

"Okay, but I don't know what's going on," Piper said unsure of what was happening.

Annabeth grabbed the microphone from the pianist and told the faun to stop playing. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention?" she asked. The crowd of all the Roman and Greek demigods stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the two girls. "We have a special clip to show all of you." Annabeth looked directly into Percy's eyes with the message of only two words:  _we're done_.

A projector screen was slowly lowering itself from the ceiling behind the girls against the wall and the projector was warming itself up. "If all of you would, please, turn your attention to the screen and enjoy the show. I'm sure everyone will get a… _kick_  out of it." Annabeth put her arm out, beckoning at the screen while never breaking eye contact with Percy.

Immediately, the projector began to show the video of Jason and Percy together already on the floor, Percy's back on the floor with Jason on top. Annabeth observed Percy break eye contact to look at the screen as his face changed from confusion to horror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Coming Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a... Treat for everyone. I altered my writing style and focused only on Percy's perspective this time so I do hope that you all like it. Thanks everyone again for reading—it's you all who keep me going. I'll try to write the next one faster, I've just been so busy with other real life matters lately.
> 
> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belong to Rick Riordan.

The world around him wasn't moving, still much like a picture captured in a camera. No one moved; no one talked or looked around or so much as took a breath. Everything had seemingly lost the will to keep going in time.

He observed the scene around him—friends, both Greek and Roman, scattered densely about the ballroom floor in perfect statue form. His close friends—Hazel, Frank, Grover, Leo, Piper, Jason and even Nico—were there, as nonmoving as much as his other friends like Clarisse. Even Camp Half-Blood's overseer, Chiron, was there, partying up like everyone else.

But nothing moved.

Everyone was facing a projector screen at the front of the room where Annabeth looked down onto the crowd, paused, with a fiendish smirk that only he understood, and like Annabeth, the video paused as well. Nothing other than those simple observations were processed in Percy's mind, vague already in their descriptions. He wondered why time had stopped. Filled with a sense of relief that he knew not where it came from, he looked on the scene with confusion.

But a blinding light presented itself toward the back of the room, catching Percy's attention. Apart from both him and the light, the world was still, holding its breath in suspended silence. As the son of Poseidon whirled around in his own stopped world, an almost perfect beauty made her appearance to him, wrapped in an extremely intricate white dress that billowed softly where no wind was present. Her face was perfectly symmetrical and her hair was blonde.

"Hello, Percy," said the highly seductive voice that made the raven-haired teen focus all of his attention to her. Around the two of them, the world still frozen, Percy did not register anything beyond what he had already discovered. His brain seemed to stop working momentarily as what happened in the world around them was suddenly unfamiliar and foreign. His gaze focused on the soft personage before him.

She clasped her hands together, "This is such a beautiful ball." Her piercing blue eyes gazed down at Percy, briefly scanned the room around them, and returned back to him. "I'm glad I made it on time for the special show."

"Aphrodite," Percy said, dumbfounded. Why the world stopped was unbeknownst to him, nor did he know why the goddess of love and beauty was right in front of him. His mind was muddled with elaborate confusion, being tugged on with a supernatural force that he couldn't figure out.

The goddess smiled warmly at him and chuckled. "So you  _do_  recognize me. I thought you would've been too shocked with what's going on around you to even know who I am," she said playfully as she pulled a fan from nowhere and began cooling herself off. She whistled, "It's about to get steamy in here!"

Percy knitted his eyebrows together, lost, and tilted his head slightly. "What do you mean by 'steamy'? What's going on?"

Aphrodite raised her eyebrows and asked, "You mean you don't know what's happening?"

"No. All I remember is Annabeth saying to look at a screen, a projector screen lowering itself, and then the world kind of just stopped." He looked around at the screen, a blank piece of canvas drooped from the ceiling.

"Tell me Percy, what do you think about Annabeth?" She folded her fan and began to walk up to him.

"I love her," he said almost instantly. "She's my everything and she's smart."

Smirking, the goddess asked another question, "Then what about that Jason boy? You know, the son of Jupiter?"

A sense of dread passed over Percy as realization hit him like a car going at eighty miles per hour. He suddenly felt sick as something inside him fell and hit the bottom of his stomach with a mighty force strong enough to split Hephaestus's anvil in two. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," he choked out, the lump in his throat being swallowed.

She put her hand on her hip and continued to look at him with a knowing smirk, "Oh come on, Percy. It's summer, and let me tell you,  _love is in the air_." She waved the hand with the fan in it over her head in a graceful arc, gesturing to the inanimate season. "You don't have to lie to me."

A small droplet of sweat formed at his forehead and trailed itself thinly down as nerves fired through him. "I think he's a great friend," he lied cautiously. He knew it was futile to lie to her but he still hoped she didn't know, although the chances of that were like the chances of Hades being accepted back as an Olympian. Regardless, he couldn't admit his feelings for Jason. He couldn't accept the fact that he, for some reason, would get excited whenever his younger counterpart was next to him or why he took in a deep breath when he noticed the blonde walk into the ballroom in a tuxedo that complimented his features so boldly.

He also couldn't admit the fact that he's blushing just thinking about him, the things they did and what they could have done more. He just couldn't explain why his heart skipped a beat when Jason talked now—Percy was never like this before. Aphrodite just smiled down on him through glinting eyes: "I think it's adorable that you would try to hide your true feelings of him from me." Percy scowled. "I know you have a terrible case of crushing on your best friend. But love knows no bounds, knows no limits."

"Face it, Percy," she continued. "You have the love flu. Unfortunately for you, this has no cure and will never heal. Like a cut that keeps bleeding or a wound that keeps bruising, you're stuck like this." The goddess of love and beauty gave him a look of pity and sympathy mixed with genuine happiness and excitement.

"You," Percy called out. Aphrodite gave a mock confused look back at him as he went on, "It was you. You were the one that caused all this. My feelings, my sudden attraction for a  _boy_ —and my emotions for my best friend…" His voice trailed off.

"Yes," she replied, "It was me. And now you see the truth." She gestured at all the people in the room with them. "And so will they. Very soon."

"What do you mean?" he asked impatiently. The goddess wasn't making any sense after she said those last two sentences.

"Just look on and watch," Aphrodite said coolly. "This will be a beautiful moment, one that my lover will remember for years to come—and one that, unfortunately for you, will mean the death of your relationship with Annabeth, and the death of my daughter's with Jason's." She faked a tear, her eyes shimmering between a sad blue and brilliant green. Aphrodite wiped the false tear with her hand as her bleach-blonde hair turned a soft brown and walked backward, giving Percy room to turn around and continue looking at the screen.

And as he did, Percy's face went from confusion to horror as time continued to flow once more and the projector played the scenes from the night before. Annabeth's cold eyes gazed down at him from the front.

A wave of suppressed breaths blanketed the room as everyone looked at the video. Percy was frozen, either by Aphrodite's will or because of his state of panic. The video began. " _We don't have to do this if you don't want_ ," the Jason in the video said nervously.

Percy continued to look at the screen, " _I…I want to_." His eyes widened as his will collapsed on the inside. There was a certain numbness that seeped into him from the outside, a sense of cold and ill-will dread permeating throughout. It was a nightmare that Percy knew he was living through, something he wouldn't wake up from.

The longest minutes of Percy's life, which seemed like centuries of agonizing humiliation, passed ever so slowly, torturing and deteriorating his ego and pride.

" _Do you want me to continue?_ " video Jason asked.

" _Please_."

" _Please what?_ "

" _Please touch me_ ," video Percy asked desperately. From the side view, the scene looked very different. His embarrassment shot through the roof as his ears figuratively bled from what he was hearing. From there, the numbness inside spread and began to deafen the world around him. The video played but he heard nothing and processed nothing once more. The only thing he could think of was Jason.

Said blonde-haired teen was only a few feet away from where the son of Poseidon stood. Percy looked at him, his impassive face showing nothing but his eyes screaming volumes of anger. Percy looked from him to the floor, afraid at what he might see on the screen. He heard nothing but felt a pinball course painfully through him.

The raven-haired teen cast his gaze on to Annabeth again, her face smirking in victory and hate, and felt his hands turn to fists at his sides. Annabeth, however, broke her stare from him as she went to console a bawling Piper.

Finally, when he regained his ability to process information, he began to hear again and looked up at the screen. " _O-okay. Fine,_ " video Percy said as he prepared to go down on his partner. The real Jason managed to tear his eyes from the screen and looked at Percy, but it was more than Percy could handle.

Broken from whatever froze him to his spot, Percy put his head down and dismissed himself from the ball by running out, pushing through people and not looking back. He thought he heard someone call his name but he didn't care. He just kept on running.

And running.

He ran so far that he didn't know where he ended up. Outside of some Roman bakery or something, most likely. He just had to get out of there or he might've broken down. That was  _humiliating_. Percy leaned against the alley brick wall of some building, keeping his head down as he stifled tears that threatened to come out.

He was shaking and he knew it, but he couldn't calm down. His breath was labored from running so far and the wind messed up Percy's perfect hair, now disheveled. Percy put his hands on his knees as he continued to lean his back against the wall, bent over and frustrated and humiliated and broken. It had to be a nightmare. It just had to be. There was no other explanation for it.

"I found you," Jason said out of breath shortly after Percy anchored himself. "I finally found you." Jason audibly swallowed and walked up to the opposite alley wall. He was catching his breath, panting heavily as sweat trickled down his forehead, but Percy didn't care. He was too angry and embarrassed to care.

Percy let a single tear escape his eye, keeping his head bowed. He was still shaking and didn't acknowledge Jason yet. "We need to talk," Jason said, still panting.

"Leave me alone," Percy snapped, his voice tight.

"Hey princess," Jason began a retort, "In case you haven't noticed, I was on the big screen just as much as you were." Jason finally caught his breath but Percy was still shaking. The son of Poseidon remained muted and Jason went on to fill the silence that was way too obnoxious for the both of them. "We're both in a lot of trouble."

The moon was out. It shone brilliantly against the waning day sky. But like the stars that were beginning to appear, Percy remained silent. There was a stretched quietness between the two demigods, a quietness so loud it was deafening. The only sounds were the natural breathing of the two boys, although Percy was still shaking with muffled anger and embarrassment. "Hey, talk to me Perce," Jason said.

"I told you to leave me alone," Percy snarled as he looked up, a glistening wet streak on his cheek. "So why are you still here?"

Jason was visibly taken aback at the inquiry. Sure, Percy was being rude and he knew it, but Jason still looked hurt. Percy just didn't know how to deal with the situation. "Because we were both just fucked over by your girlfriend and I'm trying to get us both out of this mess." The raven-haired teen just growled at the term  _girlfriend_  but let Jason continue. "This is bad, I get it, but you can't take your anger out on me."

" _You_  weren't the one who was being humiliated on screen in front of everyone!" Percy shouted for no reason. "I'm sure you  _loved_  the fact that everyone saw you dominate me like that." The sea prince was confused and hurt, oblivious to the fact that Jason was embarrassed just as much as he was.

Jason got off the wall and went up to the older teen, grabbing him by his shirt collar. "Listen, Percy. If you don't calm down and get it together, this is only going to get worse." The blonde looked straight into the elder's eyes and went on, "You know as much as I do that the two of us fighting won't change what just happened at the ball." Jason pointed in the general direction of the ballroom with his other hand.

Percy's only reply was silence and a scowl. He glared at the younger teen that was slightly taller than him and felt torn immediately. Percy didn't  _want_  to be mad at Jason, he just needed to blow off some steam. Why couldn't Jason understand that he just wanted to be alone?

The quiet night was beginning to fill with the sound of crickets playing their songs while mosquitos, maggots and other minute flying creatures took flight and fluttered about the air. One of them bit Percy in the back of the neck but he didn't seem to notice or care. Lowering his head, Percy growled quietly, "Let go of me."

Jason complied and released the elder teen. Friend or not, the two of them were still both demigods and an angry Percy might just take the water in the sewers and cause an accident neither of them want.

A few minutes were passed in eerie silence and both teens slumped down next to each other on the same wall in the alley. After calming down from his shaking, Percy began in a croaked voice, "Sor—." He cleared his throat, "Sorry."

"Don't be," Jason replied without any hint of anger. Jason's head was bowed and his knees were brought to his chest as his elbows rested on them. "You calm now?"

"Yeah, I think so," Percy whispered. There was a pause. "And it's your birthday. I feel terrible." There was a sudden pang of guilt that resonated through him for getting upset at one of his best friends, especially when it was on a special occasion like this one.

The blonde-haired teen waved a lazy hand. "You're fine. It's okay," Jason said over the ringing of crickets. Percy wished he could tell what Jason was thinking, what it was like to be in his head. Even right now, as the two of them sat together in the darkened alley with only a Roman streetlamp softly illuminating the adjacent sidewalk, Percy's heart was beating fast, and not from running either.

There was an odd sensation—one that felt like a void he didn't know was there before, and one that Annabeth couldn't fulfill. But with the presence of Jason, Percy didn't feel so hollow any more. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was but something about the younger teen just made him feel good on the inside, like that warm feeling you get after eating something hot in the middle of a frostbite winter.

Suddenly, an arm was put around Percy's shoulders and the son of Poseidon visibly jumped at the contact. A warm sensation creeping up his neck, Percy turned to look at Jason, who kept looking forward but pulled Percy in.

If anything, the sea prince was glad that the alley was dark so that the son of Jupiter couldn't see the ardent blush that spread over his cheeks. Jason smelled of delicious cologne, indescribable yet he knew exactly what it was, and he couldn't help but think why he didn't stop and smell Jason in the first place. Intoxicating, the smell wrapped around his brain in a haze that muddled his mind.

"We'll be fine, Perce," Jason's beautiful voice boomed in Percy's ear. Deep and sweet like honey, his voice continued, "Stop worrying about it." The vibrations of Jason's voice swept off of his shoulder and into Percy's face, reverberating itself to the void now filled far down inside Percy's core.

"But what about the other campers? What're they going to say about this? What're they going to think about, well,  _us_?" The questions were unmistakably valid ones, but the fact that the elder teen voiced them aloud raised the gravity of the situation even further.

"We're not going to worry about what the others think. What's important is that  _we_  know who we are," Jason said matter-of-factly.

Percy dared not to hope, but he asked anyways, "So there is a 'we' then?" He shifted from his resting position on Jason's shoulder to tilt his head upward to look at the blonde. Said blonde removed his arm from Percy—prompting Percy to sit upright—in order to face him properly.

"I don't think you understood what I meant," Jason said coldly. "We're both still boys, and what happened yesterday won't be repeated." A sharp pain shot itself down Percy, forcing its way through his body. The blush faded quickly from Percy's face. "I meant we were going to face everyone together so that neither of us has to go through it alone, but I wasn't implying there was anything else between us."

One of the streetlamps across the road began to flicker. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply any…" Percy's voice trailed off as his eyes went to focus on the finger that was suddenly put to his lips to silence him.

"You say 'sorry' too much. What happened to Percy, the Savior of Olympus? The hero of Camp Half-Blood?" Jason egged on.

"The goddess of love happened, that's what," Percy retorted quietly.

Jason raised an eyebrow at this and looked at the raven-haired teen confused. "What do you mean?"

"This may sound crazy," Percy began, "but Aphrodite stopped time right after Annabeth started the video and told me that everything that's happened between us was her fault." Percy looked away, upset that he still harbored feelings for the boy that literally shut him down a couple of seconds ago. He pulled his knees to his chest and hugged himself as he rested his chin on his knees and pouted.

"So," Jason said as he turned to face the son of Poseidon, "You're saying that everything was because Aphrodite did this?" Jason raked a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "Why?"

"I don't know," Percy replied honestly, still hugging his legs. "She said something about people remembering it for years to come, especially her lover or something." At this, Jason looked up and put a wondering face on. Percy looked up from his knees and at Jason, "What?"

"What about her lover?" the blonde asked, a serious face on.

"That they would remember it…?"

"Yeah. Who's her lover again?"

The raven-haired teen racked his brain for the answer. Greek mythology was always Annabeth's thing, so he guessed he'll have to get used to thinking about things on his own from now on. Wasn't Aphrodite married to Hephaestus? Something about that, however, didn't seem right—not the way she labeled it as  _lover_. "Why is this important?" Percy asked.

"Venus has a history for getting revenge for others, especially when it works in her favor." Jason scowled in thought. Percy looked at Jason's thinking face and couldn't help but think how cute it looked. That Jason was sitting next to him in the alley like this made his skin burn in a pleasant way; the thought, however, was dismissed when he caught himself checking out his best friend. Jason is a boy. A boy that he had sex with—beautiful, hot sex on the floor of Jason's house, just before Jason's birthday.

The elder teen cleared his throat, his face flushing a bit. "But Venus is Roman. Would Aphrodite…" The son of Poseidon's voice trailed off as something hit him. Of course Aphrodite would! And he just figured out who her lover was. "Ares," Percy said suddenly.

"Ares? What would he have to do with this?" Jason asked, lost.

"I don't know. I invited Clarisse to the ball and I don't remember doing anything to piss him off."

"How about Athena? That's Annabeth's mom," the blonde offered.

"Aphrodite and Athena? I don't think they're lovers, Jason. Athena's a virgin, remember? And I doubt Aphrodite would enjoy mind-love," Percy dismissed although internally admitting the idea of the two goddesses mind-melding with each other to achieve some sort of  _intellectual pleasure_  between the two was a bit comical.

Jason extended his legs and crossed his arms over his chest. "Hephaestus is out of the question. It has to be Ares," Jason thought aloud. A faun on a blue Vespa passed by the alley where the two discreetly hidden teens were, unaware of their presence besides the buildings. As the faun passed, the flickering streetlamp stopped flickering and illuminated itself continuously and brilliantly. The light was stronger than ever before. Neither of the boys seemed to notice.

"It was because I beat him so long ago," Percy whispered. Jason looked at him like he was crazy. "I was fighting him and I beat him. Is that what this is about?" The last sentence was not directed to Jason but rather directed toward the heavens above. Percy questioned the sky, looking up, and received a response. Thunder rolled off in the background somewhere, dark clouds contrasted in a ghostly white against the black night ceiling slowly creeping towards New Rome.

A soft rain began, the buzzing of the droplets of water hitting the ground suddenly filling the silence. In the alley the boys were sitting at, there was no roof to cover them. Jason stood up in a panic but Percy didn't worry since he didn't get wet. The younger teen ran to the front of the building they were next to, to stand underneath the awning so he wouldn't get wet further.

Rising, Percy went to stand next to Jason completely dry. "I see," Percy whispered, defeated. Meanwhile, Jason was complaining that his tuxedo got wet and that he needed to go home to shower so he wouldn't catch a cold.

**-PJ &TO!-**

Although there were birds chirping outside somewhere and the sun shone its rambunctious light through his window, Percy didn't feel the best when he woke up from his bed. Yawning, he covered his mouth with his hand and had a drowsy look on his face.

In pajamas, he scratched his disheveled hair wondering what happened. Percy remembered having a nightmare that he and Jason had sex, his friends found out about it and that Aphrodite was the one that orchestrated it. Everything seemed so vivid that it made his head hurt. Melting out of his bed sheets, he slithered off his bed and went to his bathroom to brush his teeth and somewhat comb his hair in the mirror.

"I look like crap," he said to no one in particular. After his daily routine of fixing himself up, he separated from the bathroom and went to his closet to get something to change into but found a discarded tuxedo at the bottom of his closet, crumpled in a pile on the floor. Eyes widening, his heart sunk five feet inside him.

No. There was no way that actually happened.

It couldn't have happened—

—rather, it  _didn't_  happen.

Percy reassured himself that everything was just a nightmare and that the ball was successful as he danced with Annabeth all night long and celebrated with his friends for Jason's birthday. Yeah, that's what happened.

Picking something from his closet—a plain green t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts—he dressed and got ready to go out. After he exited his gift house and locked his door, he walked down the streets of New Rome, the harsh sun beating its rays upon weary pedestrians. Deciding Percy wanted to go to a breakfast bistro, he went to a small local one and sat outside on the deck, underneath an umbrella that provided much-needed shade for the boy. A waiter with a black apron and white clothes underneath came up to the table with a cup of water and asked Percy, "Hello. I am Augustus and I'll be your waiter for today. May I interest you in today's special?"

"Yes actually," Percy said casually. "Don't tell me what it is, just surprise me."

Augustus's face remained impassive as he turned back into the building to get his order. Percy spent about an hour eating there, noting the stray wayward glances toward Percy as people walked by the bistro. He thought it was weird but ignored them. As he finished the meal, paid the waiter and left a tip in  _denarii_ , a faun with a hat that said REPORTER on it came up to Percy. The faun spoke, "Perseus! Are you Perseus?"

Percy turned to look at the faun and smiled but wondered why a reporter was coming up to him. A camera hung loosely around the faun's neck. Beginning her harassment, the faun asked, "I'm with the New Rome Times and I need to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind. How do you feel about what happened last night?"

Percy's eyebrow twitched at that and looked confused at the creature. "What do you mean?" Percy asked as he left the bistro's deck and continued to look at the faun.

"The video in front of everyone? That's a juicy story! Oh, and how you ran! Tell me, what are your thoughts?"

Percy turned and walked away, saying, "No comment."

"What are your feelings about Annabeth after what she did to you?"

"No comment."

"How do you feel about Jason?"

Percy whirled around and looked at the faun in the eye, "If I said 'no comment' the first time, it's because I'm not going to comment about anything else. Now leave," Percy said with an edge of threat laced in his voice.

The faun quickly picked up the camera that was around her neck and snapped a professional photo of Percy and ran away. Percy seethed at that but shrugged it off and continued walking. So it wasn't a nightmare and it actually happened.

Unless this was a nightmare and he's still sleeping right now. But even if this was a nightmare, demigod dreams are normally visions of either the future or what is going on right now, so he was still screwed either way. He swallowed and finally came to the fact that everyone knew and he just had to deal with it.

In the end, Percy went to go find Jason at his house to see what they could do to rectify the situation. "I don't know," Jason said as the two of them sat on Jason's couch in his living room.

"You don't have  _any_  idea on how to fix this?" Percy inquired.

"I'm as lost as much as you are bro." It was noon and Jason was eating a pizza while he talked, Percy too nervous to have an appetite. "You said the NRT tried interviewing you?"

"Yeah. I guess word spread kind of fast, didn't it?" Percy said dejectedly.

Jason swallowed the piece of pizza in his mouth and sighed, his arm on top of the couch. "Well, one thing's for sure: we're screwed." Even though the two boys were in deep trouble, Percy couldn't stop looking at Jason. There was something about him and the way he composed himself, especially when he was calm like he is now, on the couch and talking to Percy.

Perhaps everything would work out well—that is, if everyone magically forgot about what happened between the two. Jason  _seems_  unfazed by the situation, but that is probably a façade he puts on to seem strong. Or maybe he really does not care.

The raven-haired teen remembers a time when a group of Aphrodite kids tried embarrassing Jason in front of everyone by sneaking into his cabin while he was sleeping. They put makeup on the blonde's face, put his hair in a ridiculous style and took out all the mirrors so when he woke up, he wouldn't notice he looked totally different. As it turned out, when people started laughing at him and he realized that he looked like clown on steroids after looking in a shield's reflection of himself, he shrugged and laughed with them, continuing his day uncaring.

Percy never thought he could be that brave, and he proved it to himself last night when he fled the ball with his tail between his legs. And after Jason ran to catch up with him, he felt guilty that the son of Jupiter had to leave his own birthday party to calm down an emotional sea prince. Maybe Percy was just being overdramatic and all of this was blown out of proportion.

Or maybe he was not freaking out enough because all of his friends and then some saw him get pounded into viciously. Right. The Great Percy Jackson, savior of Olympus, unifier of the two camps, deflowered raw on the floor of Jason's home, on display for all to see. Because that isn't humiliating.

The older teen looked at the younger teen, whose blonde hair was perfect like the rest of him, and could not help but admire his well-defined facial features, the rugged refinement of his muscles and athletic body. Jason was wearing casual khaki pants with a blue-and-white-and-black plaid button up shirt, but Percy found even that to be striking on him.

Percy caught himself staring, for two seconds or for an hour he doesn't know. His face reddened. Was it always this hot in Jason's house? He spoke sarcastically, "Because that's not obvious." He observed the other boy for any sign of retaliation or movement that would signal Jason's thoughts but found none. Jason was still, almost as if Percy had not spoken. The two sat in silence for a while, letting the memories of yesterday and the day before settle on their minds.

The son of Jupiter broke the silence first. "We're gonna have to show our faces some time. I know it's embarrassing, but that's why we're doing it together."

Percy is secretly a pervert, he realized. When Jason said, "Doing it," Percy couldn't help but think of it as a reference to two nights ago and his face began to burn, as if lit on fire. He shook his head. He was mature enough to think rationally, not to think about the sweet piece of man right next to him. To not think about the same person who he gave a blowjob to, who he let screw the living daylights out of him.

The raven-haired teen pulled himself from his thoughts, blushing like mad as he did so. Damn Aphrodite. He's pretty sure that it's her fault he's having these feelings for Jason. "Do we have to?" Percy asked. "Can't we just stay in hiding?" Somehow the thought of never confronting anyone ever again seemed much more comforting than ever before.

"No," Jason replied sternly, "This is something that has to be done. This is just as embarrassing for me as it is you, princess, and you don't see me complaining."

Jason could be a real jerk sometimes, Percy noticed. Or maybe this is what people call "being tough." It's ironic, really—he's fought gods, titans and giants, traveled across the Atlantic to save the world, slayed countless monsters and even stood up to his first greasy step-dad, and he can't even go out to the world and be himself.  _We're not going to worry about what the others think_ , Jason said once. _What's important is that_ we _know who we are_. A jerk or a best friend, Jason always seems to know what to say.

"Would you stop calling me 'princess'?" Percy asked, irritation growing. "I swear, you like teasing me," he muttered under his breath.

Jason raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Maybe I do." The blonde grabbed another slice of pizza. "It's not like you don't like it, anyway."

For some reason, Jason always seems to make the older teen blush more than should be physically possible. One would think Percy's face would've exploded with blood by now. "I-I do not!" Percy stuttered. He scowled a bit.

"C'mon, it's all over your body language, Perce."

There it is. Perce.  _Gods_ , does he love it when Jason calls him that. Sure, it's a nickname that all of his friends call him but when it's  _his_  voice, some type of chemical reaction inside Percy goes off and puts butterflies where none should be.

"N-no it's not!" The raven-haired teen crossed his arms and defiantly looked away, secretly wishing Jason would keep going. The son of Poseidon must be a masochist. It's the only explanation.

"Then why is your face red?" the younger teen asked while smirking, putting down the slice of pizza. Percy looked at him incredulously and gulped. He scoffed.

" _Because_ ," Percy started while taking a pause. Jason raised an eyebrow as if prompting him to keep going. "It's hot in here."

Jason grinned. "It's 68 degrees in my house. I'm pretty sure it's freezing in here." Well damn. Percy really is in a corner right now. Both teens on the same couch, Jason leaned in a little while Percy was too stunned to move back. Their faces were inches apart. "You're a bad liar."

Percy's breath hitched and his face was impossibly red. His shoulders tensed. "I…" he choked out. He was never this nervous before, and as he took a small breath in he smelled a different cologne, one not as rich as the one from yesterday but equally attractive.

"Like me," Jason finished Percy's sentence and Percy's eyes went wide. The blonde-haired teen put a finger underneath the other's chin. They looked in each other's eyes and Jason's face suddenly got serious, the smirk and knowing twinkle in his eyes gone. "I told you before, we're just friends." Percy might as well have been shot just then because it felt like he was. "I know Aphrodite is making you feel this way, but you need to realize that we're both boys. What we did two nights ago was a one-time thing."

A sudden ringing filled Percy's ears as Jason said this. He felt like something inside him just died, just crawled away or was swept under a rock. He didn't notice Jason's hand leave his chin, or that the blonde leaned back to his original position—he was too stunned to notice anything. Was that a homophobic remark? No, Jason isn't  _that_  kind of person. Is it just that Jason knows they're both straight, and that both of them are being played by a goddess whose intentions are revenge?

That was a cruel joke, what Jason did. Jason could've been blunt about it and said that Percy needed to focus on remembering who he was, much like when he lost his identity when transferring to Camp Jupiter, as opposed to doing that. Best friend or major jerk, the son of Poseidon suddenly found himself not knowing which of the two he was sitting next to.

He had to catch himself in order to think straight again. His throat suddenly dry, Percy croaked, "I know." The harsh reality hit him just then as he admitted knowledge. Shaking, he cleared his throat, "I guess we'll face everyone together then."

Unaware of the damage Jason just inflicted, the blonde smiled genuinely. Even when he was just crushed by him, Percy couldn't help the fact that he loved it when he smiled. It accented his features so well. "Yeah. Are you ready? I say we do it now, before we have the chance to second-guess ourselves."

Percy simply nodded and the two rose from the couch. They both got ready and left the house together, heading toward the Forum to meet with everyone.

**-PJ &TO!-**

Some important 1940s mortal once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Those words couldn't be truer than they are now. As the two walked down the streets of New Rome with their heads up high, there was an immense buildup of tension and fear welling inside the two boys. The fear, Percy realized, was not the fear of what  _would_  happen, but the fear of  _anticipating_  what would happen. He figured one of two possible situations would happen: The people there would not care and everyone would go on with their lives (a situation he desperately hoped would happen), or it would be a big deal and everyone would marginalize them (a situation that seemed the most realistic in his mind).

In either case, apprehension rose within them at an alarming rate. They were nearing the Forum, the place where many mulled about on lazy days. The sun was domineeringly hot in the sky above, its heat radiating about the two boys as if punishing them for daring to show their faces. They passed buildings of brick and marble, saw people they never met before, ignored a journalist here and there, dodged a greedy faun trying to sell ridiculous products, heard birds chirping throughout the city, listened to the buzz of movement and conversations around them, said nothing to no one and continued with their heads up high.

Percy decided it took a considerable amount of bravery to do such things. Each new person they passed felt like new glares on their backs, but they persisted. Finally, when they reached the Forum, they saw many recognizable faces and a burst of dread permeated throughout their bodies.

They were here.

Friends, instructors and strangers alike were all walking around, minding their own business. That is, until the two boys showed up. They walked down, not knowing where they were headed but aware that the more people they passed, the more people stopped what they were doing and looked at them. The Forum slowly grew silent, aside from the hushed whispers of citizens on the side. They heard bits and pieces of conversation here and there, some "Isn't thats" and "Aren't theys" and "Hey, those ares."

A distinguishable path was cleared for the two boys as they walked through the Forum. Heads turned, murmurs made and eyes were focused. All the while the two boys continued to walk in synchronization, still not knowing their final destination. A brawny girl with brown hair and hard eyes came to stand in front of the two. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Grace and his boyfriend Jackson," Clarisse snorted, her hands on her hips and a knowing smirk planted on her face.

Percy had mentally fortified himself for remarks like these. He expected people to make fun of them, to jeer at them or to even spit at them. What he didn't expect was silence. It was eerie and all hush-hush, like some gods-awful secret that everyone knows but no one was brave enough to talk about out loud. The quietness bore a hole through his chest, creating what seemed like a black hole, trying to absorb everything it can in order to shut itself; the quietness was the reason his fortitude was slipping. Clarisse's statement was so obnoxious among the silence that it rang throughout, echoing, and made itself heard and becoming the causal reason for dissipating Percy's mental strength.

Jason had the courage to reply calmly. "Back off, Clarisse." There was a clearly-defined edge to his voice that Percy found intimidatingly attractive.

Clarisse smirked harder, a feral look growing in her eyes. "Aw, Jackson's boyfriend is standing up to me. It's so  _cute_  that he has to defend you." Her voice boomed throughout the silence, resonating throughout the crowd of people.

Percy scanned the swath of onlookers for anyone he knew. He lost count at the number of them. The only people he didn't see was Leo, Annabeth or Piper and reverted his gaze back to Clarisse. Before either of the three in the middle of the pathway could say anything, someone in the crowd shouted, "Everyone, it's the two faggots!"

Suddenly, the crowd went wild with jeering, screaming and…cheering? Was that right? Somewhere in the middle of all the booing, Percy could hear people trying to calm everyone down or others screaming support for their love (which Percy found ironic considering that they were  _not_  in love). The crowd of people broke the cleared pathway and formed a circle around the two boys, swallowing Clarisse in the masses.

The deafening roars continued for thirty seconds before a horn was blown and Chiron walked through the crowd, breaking everyone apart. The Forum went silent and the sound of hooves clicking on cement shot through the air. "I want everyone," Chiron's confident voice said, "To go back to what they were doing. Tomorrow is an important day where we send the Greek campers back to Camp Half-Blood, so I don't want anything bad happening."

Chiron flashed a look of protective approval at both Percy and Jason, and the two boys sighed with relief and visibly relaxed their shoulders. "Everyone, disperse," Chiron ordered.

After everyone resorted back to what they were doing before, both princes walked to Chiron and thanked him. "That meant a lot, really," Jason said.

"Yeah, you didn't have to do that. Thanks," Percy spoke after Jason.

"It's my job, boys," Chiron replied. "Now look, I don't care what happened between you and your boyfriend," Chiron nodded in Percy's direction, "And I don't care what you continue to do. But if I walk into either of your cabins and catch you doing things, there will be Hades to pay, got that?" Both boys swallowed and nodded their heads. "Also, try not to get into any fights before we leave. I would like to go home as soon as possible."

Chiron turned and walked away, the clicking of his hooves now drowned out by the sound of a million voices. The two boys looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking. At the same time they both said, "We're not boyfriends." Their faces went red and looked away from each other.

Percy rubbed the back of his neck and started to speak when Jason said, "Piper." The raven-haired teen looked up and saw Piper in the distance wearing a t-shirt and camouflage pants. She stopped and saw the two, knitted both eyebrows together and ran away, crying. Jason looked at Percy with pleading eyes.

"Go," Percy said and the younger teen didn't hesitate to run to catch up with his former girlfriend. Well, would you consider her former? They never  _technically_  broke up and Jason is still straight he was sure. Then what does that make him and Annabeth? They never "officially" broke up, but they might as well have. He was so confused.

And he doesn't consider himself  _gay_ , he just…happens to like a boy. Wait. Like? Percy doesn't like Jason; he just…is making excuses to not seem like he would… But then it's all Aphrodite's fault, isn't it? He thinks it is. He likes to think it is. He knows it is.

Or does he?

Maybe somewhere deep down inside he always liked Jason. Jason's leadership skills, his blonde hair, his toned body, the way girls look at him—how can someone  _not_  like him? Percy found himself blushing and realized he was still standing in the same spot where Jason left him, as if he was waiting for him to return. He shook his head and started walking.

**-PJ &TO-**

Percy sat moping on his couch in the living room of his home. It was night time, somewhere around nine o'clock. There wasn't a television so he just  _sat_ , doing nothing. A glass of ice-cold water rested on a stand next to him but otherwise, there wasn't much else going on.

Left to his own thoughts, Percy knew he would delve into things he shouldn't think about such as the events of the day or the things Jason said or how the people reacted to them or why the journalist faun interrupted him on his way home from breakfast. Thinking was never his strong suit, but this time when he did it, it only made things worse. The crowd of people, half mad at them for being two guys and the other half "supporting their love for each other" was confusing, and again, he found it ironic that they would even call what they had "love."

Of course they weren't in love. Jason was straight, he just happened to be under Aphrodite's spell on that fateful night before his birthday. But Percy didn't know about himself. He knew he loved Annabeth when he was with her, but now the sea prince developed dangerously new feelings for the son of Jupiter. These feelings were the same feelings he had while with Annabeth, yet they were totally different. The same presence of butterflies was there, but for reasons unknown, Percy found that he liked when Jason took command.

Jason can be a jerk at times but Percy finds that to be totally attractive. And it's nice to have someone else in charge from time to time because, well…he can't really explain. It seems like Percy's always in charge, always the one who takes the lead, so to have someone else do it for him,  _to him_ , is a nice change of pace. It's like he can relax and finally be who he is, not what everyone else wants him to be.

…Which leads to if Percy's gay or not. He swears he likes—liked—Annabeth, and was even in love with her, but aside from that, has he ever liked other girls?

Of course he has! This is obviously some stupid trick, some stupid spell made by Aphrodite that's causing him to think this way. He's never thought about boys before, let alone about  _Jason_  until after that night. And even then he only ever thinks about Jason. That's only because Jason is hot and funny and sometimes a jerk and nice when he wants to be and kisses amazingly and…

Percy took a sip of water to cool himself off. It suddenly got hot in the room. He was sure it was because the air conditioning turned off, but it's still on…

A knock on his door that he was grateful for shook him from his thoughts. He jumped up, a little more eagerly than he wanted, and went to the door after straightening himself and fixing his hair. He cleared his throat and opened the door to find Leo Valdez looking nervously to the side at a potted plant. Percy's blood began to boil at the sight of him. "What do you want?"

Looking up, Leo asked, "Can I come in? I need to talk to you." Percy scowled but moved to the side and held the door open for Leo to pass. Leo walked in and sat on a chair adjacent to the main couch. The raven-haired teen closed the door and observed him look around the house.

"Yes?" Percy asked with a bit of attitude.

"I know you're pissed," Leo started, "But hear me out. I didn't mean to do what happened yesterday, but I felt like I had nowhere else to go."

"How did you even get that on camera?"

Leo explained to Percy the whole story about security and wanting to make sure that the houses would be fine but Percy remained skeptical. "And so you see, after I saw that I just kind of freaked, y'know?"

"So you decided to tell Annabeth about it instead of me or Jason? You're not really helping your case here, Leo."

"I know what I did was  _mala_  but I wasn't thinking—"

"Obviously," Percy cut in, rolling his eyes.

"—and I figured telling her was the best option cause she's a daughter of Athena," Leo confessed.

"You're calling me stupid, you know that, right?" Percy said flatly. His eyes were dull with boredom.

"I didn't mean it that way, I just…" Leo's voice trailed off.

Percy isn't one to hold a grudge but what Leo pulled off was unforgivable. "You helped her humiliate us in front of all those people," Percy said in a controlled but icy voice. "I thought we were friends."

"Don't you  _see_ , Percy? We  _are_  friends, and that's why I'm saying sorry!" the Hispanic squeaked.

The faucet in the kitchen sink adjacent to the living room began to spout water uncontrollably as water from the fountain in the front of Percy's home could be seen thrashing violently through the Roman window. Percy blew up, shouting. "I don't care if you say sorry! Real friends wouldn't fuck up like that! You think real friends would betray each other?" Percy's face was red with anger and he was frowning to the extreme.

Leo had a look of hurt and guilt mixed together. "I know, I just—"

"Just what, Leo? What? You think that an apology is good enough to fix the damage you caused? You didn't have to help Annabeth, you know!" Fuming, Percy got closer to Leo and in his face. He said quietly while looking dead at him in the eyes, "Get out. We leave to Camp Half-Blood tomorrow and I hope I never see your sorry face again."

Leo stood up and backed up so there was more space between the two teens. He slowly walked to the door with his hands raised, ready for anything just in case. Carefully, he opened the door and said, "You know, I miss being your friend. I'm sorry." He walked out and closed the door.

The loss of a friend hit him like a brick after Leo left. Knowing that yelling at Leo was a mistake, he was left in silence, alone, and very full of regret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voila! I hope everyone liked it—I aim to please.


	4. The Voyage Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I began this story before The Blood of Olympus was out, so I had to include some spoiler material in this chapter to make it fit because the setting of my story takes place after the series. So there are spoilers from the final book, just letting you know beforehand.
> 
> I've been reading other fanfics and saw that my characterization of Jason and Percy's chemistry was off in comparison to the canon novels. Those following the story will notice a slight shift in Percy's character, but I feel that that enhances the story.
> 
> I've also noticed how incredibly short my chapters are. I hope to extend the length one day in my writing, but I don't think I'll ever go above 10k words in any one chapter for this story. I must sincerely apologize for such tiny chapters!
> 
> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belong to Rick Riordan.

Percy Jackson felt like crap sitting in the living room of his "gift house" eating blue toast and drinking orange juice. He wasn't very hungry; after yelling at Leo last night he didn't really have an appetite but decided to eat to continue living.

It was ten in the morning in New Rome, a bright sunny day that was to be reserved for sending off the Greek campers back home. Good riddance, Percy thought. Not only was he ready to leave the beautiful city, but he was also anxious to go home. His  _real_  home in Camp Half-Blood. Cabin Three. He just wanted to be alone, away from everyone because he was so confused and so tired. It had only been two days since that little "incident" at the ball but it seemed like he had been through Tartarus again.

Not only did some of his friends ostracize him when he publicly appeared with Jason yesterday, but his relationship with the one girl he thought he loved was completely ruined. Mix that in with the fact that he caught one of his best friends, Jason, in between this mess as well. Jason didn't deserve this and neither did Piper; hell, no one did.

But the one thing he couldn't come to terms with was the fact that he developed dangerous feelings for Jason. He liked the boy but he couldn't admit it to himself, especially since Jason made it  _very_  clear that they would  _never_  happen. Percy hated Aphrodite for making them do what they did, but he couldn't blame anyone else other than himself. Percy felt as if the whole situation was his entire fault: his feelings for Jason, the public humiliation by Annabeth, the loss of Leo as a friend… It was as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, which he can say because he personally experienced the weight of the world as Atlas roamed free.

He didn't finish his toast—rather, he ate half and put the rest of it down, continuing to sip on his orange juice. After some time, however, he got bored with the juice as well. He sighed deeply and got up to throw the food away and get ready for the voyage back home which was to take place at noon. With two hours left to spare, he went to his bedroom to begin packing his things.

The dark-haired teen took out his navy blue luggage bags and set them on the floor, unzipping them. Removing his clothes from his closet and dresser, he folded them to the best of his ability and tossed them in the luggage. He did that for about an hour.

He eventually came across an oval-shaped Imperial Gold locket Annabeth gave him for their anniversary that year. It held a picture of the two of them together and a message. On the left, the picture frame held the image of Annabeth kissing Percy on the cheek while the frame on the right held a message inscribed in it that read in cursive letters, "To Percy. May our love last forever."

Percy frowned and tossed the locket against the wall. A soft thud resonated through the silent room as the locket hit the wall and fell. Something inside of Percy officially declared that he and Annabeth were over and that he hated her. Funny how fine the line is between love and hate: one moment you could love a person with your whole heart, the next you despise them with your whole being.

Percy finished packing about half an hour later and decided to go meet up with the Greek campers at the send-off site. He didn't really want to see anyone at the moment but decided that he should go anyway. Zipping up his luggage and picking it up from the floor, he slowly left his "gift home" for what seemed to be the last time and closed the door.

When he reached the send-off site—a massive field with three large zeppelins made by the Hephaestus and Vulcan kids—Percy went to check in with Chiron, who was currently taking attendance. "Ah, Percy," Chiron said without looking up from his notepad. "Just in time for check-in."

The son of Poseidon rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand. "Uh, yeah. I guess." He stood with his luggage in his hands, looking around for nothing in particular. The three zeppelins were massive constructs, designed to be able to transport the entire Greek or Roman camp population. The propellers on the back were already moving but neither of the zeppelins had lifted off. "Where can I put my stuff?"

Chiron pointed with his pencil at the zeppelin all the way to the left. "Go to the entrance and give the satyr your bags. They'll take it from there. If you want, you can go talk to some people for a bit—you have fifteen minutes until we have to board."

"Thanks," the raven-haired teen said. He left Chiron and dragged his luggage to the zeppelin, but as he neared he couldn't help but feel the sudden urge to  _not_  get anywhere close to it. It was as if his body was telling him to not go into the air because it would be bad for him.

Oh wait.

Being in the sky would be bad for him.

He ignored his intuition and gave the satyr his luggage. The satyr nodded his head and took the bags into the abyss that was the zeppelin. From up close, Percy was able to note all of the details of the ship. Some sort of white cloth covered the outer layer of the zeppelin, but bolts ran in vertical rings down the sides of it, making sort of sections in the hull. Multiple red propellers extended from the balloon portion but none of the ones save for the one in the back was moving.

Just like the Hephaestus cabin to do something like that. The whole thing looked like a  _steampunk_  contraption—something Annabeth had taught him about when they were still dating—minus the steam. Of course, zeppelin wasn't the right word for the magnitude of the monstrosity:  _flying warship_  was more like it. There were turrets lining the bottom, sides and top of the balloon portion, moving around in frenzies and constantly scanning for targets with their red-dot lasers. Percy also assumed there was a bay where bombs were kept so that they could be released and dropped onto any monsters on the ground.

Percy walked away from the war zeppelin. He wasn't looking forward to entering it, so he stalled as much as possible by walking toward no particular destination.

As it happened, he was about to turn a building's corner when he overheard voices.  _Familiar_  voices. "I can't wait to go back to Camp Half-Blood," said a certain Hispanic that made Percy angry. Percy stopped before he turned the corner, resting his back on the wall and eavesdropping.

"Me either," said Annabeth, whose words were like acid to the son of Poseidon's ears. "I'm done with New Rome for now, although the architecture is extremely beautiful." Percy resisted the urge to walk into the middle of their conversation, choosing instead to look at the ground and focus on what they were saying.

Leo spoke again: "After being away from home for so long, I'll finally be able to go back to Calypso again!" Percy put his hand into a fist and rested it on his knee to keep himself from punching the wall.

There was a brief silence. "That's right, I was wondering where she was," Annabeth said. "Why didn't she come with you to New Rome?"

"Something about wanting to bond with the satyrs and nymphs for a bit. I don't really know, but we've been Iris-messaging each other for the past month. She's totally excited to see the Great Leo return!"

Percy made a face at that. Leo's humor was annoying him. "A-at least," a new female voice choked out. "You have someone to go home to." The last three words were mixed into a sob as Piper started crying.

"Aw, c'mon Pipes," Annabeth said. "You got Dionysus!" She tried to cheer Piper up but only succeeded in making her cry more.

"It's not the same!" Piper wailed. Percy felt horrible at what he did to Piper because she didn't deserve that, but he couldn't stand to hear her crying or the sound of Annabeth or Leo's voices. He silently walked away from his spot on the wall and went into the zeppelin he was assigned to.

After being told by the pilot of the zeppelin where his cabin was, he made his way to Cabin 75, the one in the very center of the airship. He walked in to find that he had a suite—his luggage was in the room and the cabin even came with a separate bathroom, a kitchen, and a closet. "I didn't expect to get the fanciest room," Percy said to no one in particular.

The teen removed his shoes and plopped himself onto the bed, turning on the television that was on an adjacent desk and tuning into Hephaestus TV. "I choose door number three," said a tree nymph on the screen.

"Show us door number three!" a man charismatically ordered, revealing a scene of a temple in the clouds. "You won an all-expense paid luxury vacation to Mount Olympus, including free tickets to a concert produced by the Muses!" The woman cheered giddily and clapped excitedly while Percy rolled his eyes at the show.

Suddenly, the public announcement system went off: "Attention. All Greek campers are to board their ships immediately. Lift off is in ten minutes. Repeat. All Greek campers are to board their ships immediately. Lift off is in ten minutes."

Because Percy was in the center suite, he wasn't able to hear when people boarded. There was no  _clank_ ,  _clank_ ,  _clank_  against a metal ramp, as he thought there would be; nor was there any other sort of obnoxious noise that was particularly noteworthy. He went back to watching the mindless television.

Ten minutes later, he heard voices out in the hall as the campers were filing to their respective cabins. When the hall went silent, he felt the ship lift off as the intercom said, "Please fasten your cabin door for lift off. Should we experience any turbulence, we will drop breathing masks from your ceiling. A satyr attendant will be by your cabin shortly for your comfort."

And a satyr did come, with a cart that held food and beverages. Percy waved him off, saying that he wasn't hungry and the satyr continued to the next cabin. Percy returned to his bed, turned off the television and was about to try to go to sleep, even if he wasn't tired, when he heard a knock on his door.

Percy sighed—he just laid down! Getting up and going to the door, he made a mental note to switch the door to DO NOT DISTURB mode when he finished with whatever business he had to attend to.

He opened the metallic door. A whistle came from a certain blonde-haired teen with glasses. "Wow. Sweet cabin."

Percy was not expecting Jason of all people to visit him, so when he saw the taller male standing at his door with a smile on his face, he nearly melted. He fought a blush that was threatening to crawl up his neck. "W-what're you doing here, Grace?" Percy mentally chided himself for stuttering.

Piercing electric-blue eyes looked down at Percy through glass frames, just above a soft smile. "I came to see what your cabin looked like," Jason said sarcastically.

The elder teen scoffed and sarcastically continued the joke, "Well, you can come in and look if you want to see so badly."

Cockily, Jason replied, "Don't mind if I do," and walked into Cabin 75.

_Did I just let Jason Grace into my room?_  Percy thought.  _I'm supposed to keep him_ out _not let him in._  Percy felt helpless then, not sure what to do or say. Jason actually began to inspect the room, raising his eyebrow at nifty features or tilting his head to examine something further.

Jason was turned around while Percy was staring at him. The blonde teen was wearing a purple t-shirt that hugged him quite well. Percy couldn't help but notice the broad shoulders, the way his back muscles were semi-visible through the shirt. When Jason caught the raven-haired teen staring, Percy nearly choked on air.

"I know I'm hot, but I didn't come here to be stared at," Jason said with a smirk. The elder teen felt a sudden heat rush to his face as a wave of embarrassment hit him.

Percy looked to the side quickly, unable to look Jason in the eyes. "I-I wasn't staring at you," the raven-haired teen muttered. He tried to fight the blush that made his face extremely red but it was futile—Jason already noticed.

Jason decided to become bold and step in closer, Percy still looking off to the side. They were an arm's length away when Jason said with a smirk, "So you  _do_ think I'm hot? You never denied it." Percy exasperatedly looked at Jason for a brief moment, to which the son of Jupiter decided to wink at the shorter teen in response.

Percy decided he was a fool to look up, since his face only became redder and he looked away just as fast as before. "That's not true…" Percy said quietly.

Jason removed his glasses and said, "Look at me and say that."

Percy gasped, a sudden chill running through his spine. He looked up to find those electric blue eyes staring straight into the sea god's son's soul. "That's… not…" The elder teen's voice trailed off.

With glasses in one hand, the blonde lessened the gap between the two to the width of a magazine and put his free hand on Percy's waist. Percy shivered at the contact and continued to look into the eyes that mesmerized him. Jason's eyes filled with lust as a small blush covered his face as well. "Admit it," Jason commanded softly.

The son of Poseidon unconsciously pressed his body to Jason's when Jason put his hand on Percy's waist, so the son of the sea god had to look up even more to keep eye contact. "Admit…?" Percy's face burned so much, he was surprised that he was even able to choke out words at the moment.

The younger teen moved his hand from Percy's waist to his face, caressing his cheek with his thumb. "Admit that you li—"

A sudden, loud and annoying knock sounded throughout the cabin. "Housekeeping!" someone from outside the door yelled. The two teens immediately withdrew from each other, embarrassed.

Percy cleared his throat and tried to sound confident when he shouted back, "Come again later, please!" At the same time, Jason put his glasses back on his face and started brushing his clothes off with his hands in an attempt to straighten himself. Percy simply went to a pillar beside his bed and tried to process what just happened, keeping his head bowed.

The elder teen fiddled with his thumbs as he stared at the ground from the pillar while Jason leaned against the arch at the entrance that led to the suite and stared at a virtual window of the outside. Neither of the two really wanted to talk much after that "incident" but Jason decided to act like nothing happened, much to the comfort of the both of them.

"So yeah," Jason said, clearing his throat. "This is your cabin. It's nicer than mine."

"Is it?" Percy asked. "I guess Chiron thought I should have a good room." He tried to shrug off the incident so he could focus on what was happening right then, but it was a little difficult to focus when he noticed that a tent formed in his pants from the close contact only seconds before.

The blush that finally went away came crawling back up his neck when he realized an erection spawned just from the blonde boy holding his waist. He tried to hide his red face by pretending it didn't exist, and hoped against hope that Jason wouldn't notice his member poking outward, struggling to be freed. That was, of course, wishful thinking. The damn thing protruded out like the Washington Memorial in DC. Regardless of the situation, Jason made no signs of acknowledgment.

Whew. That was good.

"That's not fair," Jason complained.

"The world isn't fair," the son of Poseidon countered.

"You're only saying that because you get the better room."

"I'm  _totally_  not, Grace," Percy said with extra sarcasm on  _totally_.

"You totally are!" the son of Jupiter exclaimed.

"Nuh-uh." There was a momentary pause. "Anyway, I haven't seen you wear your glasses in a long time. I was beginning to think you lost them."

Jason went cross-eyed for a bit to look down at the golden frames that rested on the bridge of his nose. "Oh, these? No, I ordered some contacts from Asclepius through Hermes Express. Got a special deal after the war with Gaea, so I began to wear the contacts more than these." The blonde smiled sheepishly and scratched his cheek lightly with one finger. "And I was kinda sorta somewhat too lazy to put my contacts back in."

Percy arched an eyebrow. "Kinda sorta somewhat?"

"Er, yeah. Y'know, kinda sorta…" His voice trailed off.

Percy Jackson couldn't help but find that oddly cute. He thought Jason was the smart one. Well, Percy's smart too, but Jason had that Roman education of his so Percy found it especially entertaining when Jason didn't have a witty comeback. And he never noticed how the gold frames accentuated Jason's eyes and made them even bluer. Were they always so blue? Percy  _loves_  the color blue.

"Earth to Percy," Jason said as he was suddenly close to Percy and poked him in the forehead. "You there?"

Percy blinked blankly and looked at Jason. "Y-yeah, just thinking is all."

"Thinking? About what?"

_How hot you are_. Percy really wanted to say that. Instead, he went with something else: "I was wondering if they had room service on here."

"You're unbelievable, Jackson."

**-PJ &TO!-**

When the three-balloon fleet full of Greek campers encroached onto Long Island after a week's travel, Percy felt happy to be home. He was also surprised to find that Zeus hadn't zapped him out of the sky. Maybe Zeus saw that Jason was on the fleet and decided to spare them, or that because almost every Greek demigod was on it Zeus left it alone. Or maybe Zeus was just too busy to notice that a Greek air fleet even existed.

The Hephaestus Cabin called the fleet the  _Ouranós Stólos_ , or the  _Sky Fleet_. They thought it would do good to name the fleet that since it was pretty literal and was aimed at pleasing Zeus, anyway. Leo, of course, was all about naming it something ridiculous like the  _Totally Awesome Fleet of Leo_ , but the cabin decided against it. Just the thought of Leo, however, made Percy want to punch a nearby wall and then apologize to it for treating the wall so horribly.

So he decided to think about something else.

Every day during the trip, Jason visited Percy in his cabin. The raven-haired teen didn't know why he kept on letting the blonde into his room, but he found his presence…oddly pleasant. He also found it nice that Percy never  _asked_  Jason to come—he simply showed up, each time wearing that delicious cologne that always seemed to get to Percy and leave him awkwardly in a trance before his crush.

Well, crush wasn't the right word. He still didn't want to admit that he had a legitimate crush on the younger teen. He wanted to believe that Aphrodite used some of her evil magic and planted a seed in him that sapped the sanity from Percy's head and replaced it with a hormonal-crazed and love-trapped conscious that got him into some trouble with Jason every now and then.

He remembered that on the fourth day of the trip, Percy woke up with a certain son of Jupiter's arm around his waist, the two spooning under the covers. Aside from the fact that Jason appeared to really like Percy's fancy room, hence the reason Jason would frequently visit the elder teen, Jason must've also liked being with Percy because the elder teen found himself blushing red as a cherry and noticed a rather dangerous instrument poking from Jason's lower front side in between the bisection of Percy's rear. If anyone were to observe the two, they would comment that morning wood was the source of the observer's entertainment—of course, because it led to Percy sprouting an erection of his own as well.

When Percy pulled himself from his thoughts, not only was he blushing remembering that embarrassing—and hot—experience, he also made a mental note to check with the Apollo kids what was up with his hormone levels. His sexual frustration was through the roof.

Luckily for his memories, they were both clothed at the time. Unfortunately, he could feel Jason's member poking him quite clearly because they were wearing light pajamas. Percy made a second mental note to ask the Aphrodite Cabin why he blushes so much; the blush creeping on his neck made him bite his lower lip as he stared out of a virtual window.

Leo and Jason weren't working for him. Instead, Percy decided to pack his things so he would be ready to leave when they docked—and to distract himself from either getting pissed off or seriously horny.

The  _Sky Fleet_  was approaching the north of Long Island by night, so through the virtual window Percy could peer out and see lights illuminating the sprawling metropolis below. Thankfully Jason wasn't there with him, or he would never get the packing done. The raven-haired teen was so ready to be on the ground again, and back at home.

After he finished packing, a timely voice over the public announcement system came on: "Please fasten your cabin door for landing. Should we experience any turbulence, we will drop breathing masks from your ceiling. A button on the wall by your door can be used to call a satyr for assistance." The voice sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Percy obeyed and locked his door, sitting on his bed and relaxing as he felt the ship descend closer to the ground, closer to Camp Half-Blood.

The descent took no longer than ten minutes, and before he knew it, they were on the ground. Percy grabbed his belongings and shuffled out of Cabin 75 with the other campers who were in rooms adjacent to his. As he neared the exiting ramp, a female satyr with a flight attendant cap on said to each passenger, "Thank you for choosing  _Sky Fleet_. We hope you enjoyed your flight."

How the Hephaestus Cabin managed to hire a staff of satyr attendants for the fleet was beyond Percy.

After a long day of  _nothing_  other than flight travel, Percy just wanted to go to Cabin Three and sleep. Who knew that a day of boredom could wear a demigod out so much?

Percy painstakingly trudged on to Cabin Three, carrying with him the burdens of his luggage and his fiery passion for someone that changed his life. Bags of clothing and keepsakes aside, Percy felt heavy with guilt, sadness, anger, and the uncertainty of what was to come. He carried with him more than just the luggage; on his shoulders rested the mournful truth that the life as he knew it had morphed into something irrevocable and entirely his fault; wrested from the usual daunting unpleasantries of his experiences in Tartarus laid the newfound pain of his loss with Annabeth and a fierce anger to replace the love he once held in the palms of his hands.

No—Percy's love fell to someone entirely different. Another with the same golden locks but one with eyes the color of the sky, another with the same intelligence but with the boyish stubbornness that it was followed by, another with the same disposition of natural leadership but with the preternatural alpha male characteristics that accompanied it… Where Annabeth excelled at solving two plus two to make four, Jason succeeded in solving the equation to Percy's innermost feelings—without even trying.

Percy approached Cabin Three's door. Its familiar white-washed stone body now emanated a new force, one of estranged gayness, as if happy to see its only occupant return but noticing that Percy's very demeanor had changed. The cabin itself seemed distant even though Percy was less than five feet away from its entrance, tacitly acknowledging that it was willing to accept the teen back but that it suspected something was different.

Maybe Percy was just going insane.

He turned the knob and pushed through, taking in the unchanged but slightly dusty scenery. Percy went to his bed and dropped his luggage on the floor beside it, and, only bothering to remove his shoes, flung himself onto the cozy cot, placing his hands behind his head in an attempt to relax.

He soon drifted off into sleep, only to dream that he was reliving that moment of exposure at the ball once more.

**-PJ &TO!-**

Other than the cold sweat Percy Jackson found himself waking up in, he would say his morning went pretty well.

After the effects of the embarrassing nightmare wore off, Percy's palms were clammy and his forehead was covered in a thin veil of perspiration, plastering his short black bangs. His heart beat at a hundred-and-fifty beats per minute and his eyes moved around rapidly, searching for safety in the comfort of a familiar room.

His breathing slowed once he realized what he dreamt about was nothing more than a nightmare. Once he finished deliberately trying to slow his heart rate through relaxation, he melted from underneath the bed sheets and went to the fountain in the center of the cabin to wash his face with. It might be rude of him to do that, but Percy figured Poseidon would have to deal with a hormonal teenager for now.

The freshening-up process of his daily routine took little more than fifteen minutes, and before he knew it, he was wide awake, out the door, and in the morning sunshine. Although it was July in New York, there was a slight cool breeze that permeated itself, covering the people outside with a mild layer of chill.

Percy made his way to the Dining Pavilion in the camp, seeking breakfast for the stomach that kept nagging him to be fed. Thankfully, Leo, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason weren't there so he could relax when he went to his table.

He noticed he received furtive glances toward him from his fellow campers, making him feel self-conscious about everything he did. A simple sip from a goblet would garner a swift look from a daughter of Aphrodite or the lifting of a fork would attract the attention from a member of the Hermes cabin. Normally, Percy could care less about what people thought of him, but ever since the night at the ball—reinforced with the nightmare he had the night prior—he couldn't get over the fact that everyone saw him be  _vulnerable_. It hurt to think like that, but it was true.

Everyone currently present, save for the satyrs and nymphs, was at the ball. They were all eye-witnesses for the events that transpired back at Camp Jupiter. Maybe Percy was paranoid, but he believed that the memory of what they saw was refreshed and very vivid to them each time the others saw him. At least, the memory certainly was vivid for him, anyway.

Typically, the Dining Pavilion would be humming with conversation and everyone would have smiles glued to their faces. Today, however, with the return of everyone back to their normal lives, nobody so much as attempted a weak smile. The only source of sound emanated from the clanking of metal spoons, forks, and knives against their respective plates. It was an eerie silence filled with soundless gazes toward Percy.

Percy was sure that by then, all the nymphs and satyrs knew about what happened in California. On his way to the Dining Pavilion, some of the nymphs blushed and giggled, whispering in hushed voices with each other. That only made the teen feel worse about what happened. He hoped that everyone would forget about what happened, but that didn't seem probable until  _much_  later.

A couple of minutes later, Percy finished his breakfast and began to walk away as a certain cute blonde-haired teen with blue eyes and a tall muscular build walked toward the Dining Pavilion. He seemed to be looking for someone.

Percy wanted to avoid him after being reminded of New Rome through his nightmare. He walked toward the other direction, but a little too late. "Hey Perce!" Jason shouted to get Percy's attention. Percy turned to see a hand cupping the side of Jason's mouth as Jason called him.

The raven-haired teen arched an eyebrow at Jason, who beckoned him to come over. Reluctantly, Percy traversed the Dining Pavilion to meet with the younger teen, the other campers whispering in each other's ears or some of the girls from the Aphrodite cabin giggling in the background. "Y-yeah?" Percy stuttered quietly, trying to keep his voice down because talking any louder would seem out of place in such a silent area.

Jason didn't have the playful smile or the friendly grin he normally had. His face was stoic, unreadable. "Chiron said he wanted to talk to us in the Big House." He was curt, but Percy chose not to say anything. The two just walked off together in the direction the immortal centaur wanted them to.

The son of Jupiter didn't give off an air of tension or hostility. He didn't give off anything, really. Percy didn't know whether to be worried about that, but he found the silence next to him enjoyable. Maybe because he was able to be publicly alone with the boy, as paradoxical as that sounded.

The sound of grass crunching underneath the boys' shoes was comforting to both teens. Percy didn't know what Jason was thinking, but he wished he did. Looking straight ahead but consciously employing full use of his peripheral vision, he eyed Jason intently, studying him up and down. As opposed to the purple t-shirt Jason usually sported, he wore an orange one. At the same time, Percy's SPQR tattoo started to itch. He resisted the urge to scratch it.

Their journey was more of an automatic one of sorts, neither of the teens actually focusing on their destination because the mental map they established long ago guided them through a sensation of naturalness. The cogs in Percy's heads turned, transferring nearly all of his focus toward the teen that walked alongside him.  _Gods_  he was so hot.

Yeah, he was younger than Percy, but  _geez_ , was he good-looking. And what makes it better? He's the son of  _Jupiter_. The Sky God. The King of Kings. Lord Zeus. If that didn't scream alpha male, he didn't know what would. Although he would never admit it, he secretly enjoyed being dominated like what happened on the night before Jason's birthday. He loved that fact that Jason was able to take control and relieve Percy from the usual expectation of being in charge. Jason is the former Praetor of New Rome. Percy was just… He was just the son of Poseidon. Even his father was subservient to Zeus.

He had the sudden urge to grab and hold Jason's hand, but inferred that doing so would only depreciate the value of whatever relationship they had with each other. He stymied the urge. But, through his peripheral vision again, he focused on Jason's golden hair, his muscular arms, his perfect build. Every positive Roman quality was present in Jason. The blonde, essentially, epitomized what it meant to be Roman. The quintessential paragon of Rome's leadership, Percy didn't mind being submissive to whatever Jason wanted. It was part of the reason he walked over to Jason in front of everyone at the Dining Pavilion in the first place.

Heritage aside, all-in-all Jason was just cute. When it came down to it, Jason was better looking than Annabeth, and he thought  _she_  was pretty. Coupled with Jason's capability to be nice—although, recently Percy found out he could be a jerk when he wanted—Percy was ultimately smitten by his personality. Jason was simply overall  _great_.

When they reached the Big House, the son of Poseidon found himself blushing and biting his lip in thought. He hoped the other hadn't noticed.

They approached the doors in time for Percy to kill the red in his face and Jason finally spoke. "Here we are." Jason opened the door and held it for Percy to walk through. "After you, Perce."

Percy stifled the wont of blush, but he still had a warm feeling sprout from his stomach when Jason actually showed some semblance of kindness. He took the offer and walked through the door, entering the Big House. "Of course, Jace." Both teens made their way to the Rec Room where Chiron was waiting for them, sitting in his familiar wheel chair.

The centaur had a serious look on his face, completely devoid of emotion. He gestured for the boys to stand around the ping pong table that was used during meetings. When the boys settled on either side of Chiron, the immortal half-horse, half-man spoke: "I wouldn't call you two in here without reason, as I am sure you are aware."

The boys nodded but Percy and Jason exchanged glances of worry at each other. Chiron continued, "You are not in any sort of trouble, but you two  _do_  have to do something."

Suddenly, a red-haired girl with a freckled face walked into the Rec Room and stood at the opposite end of the ping pong table from Chiron.

"Unfortunately," Rachel Elizabeth Dare said, "I do not have a prophecy for this something. My powers are still not working from whatever happened in Delphi."

"We received word from a goddess that a mirror of hers was lost," said Chiron. "This mirror is very important to her as Hephaestus gave it to her and has special magical properties."

"And she made it very clear that no one but Percy and you," Rachel gestured at Jason, "were qualified for retrieving it—"

"So that means that the two of you must go together—"

"And only you two—"

"In order to recover this mirror," Chiron finally finished.

The back-and-forth between Chiron and Rachel gave Percy a hard time trying to keep up, what with his ADHD and all. They finished each other's sentences, which was rather strange to him but decided nothing more of it.

Percy opened his mouth to speak but Jason beat him to it. "Wait, so you mean Percy and I  _have_  to go?" The two male teens looked at Chiron, Percy secretly hoping for some odd reason that Chiron would say yes.

His secret wishes were filled when the centuries-old centaur nodded. Jason's face changed to a grimace, which made the dark-haired teen feel a little upset but focused his attention on the conversation. To direct himself out of his thoughts of looking forward to spending some alone time on a quest with Jason, Percy raised a question. "Where can we find this mirror?"

Rachel and Chiron looked at each other. They seemed to be having a tacit conversation among themselves. After a few seconds of raising eyebrows, the rolling of eyes, and scowling, Rachel answered. "We're not sure. We know it's located somewhere in Boston, Massachusetts, but otherwise, we're as lost as you are."

"Right," Jason said. "So we just have to wing it this time?"

"Not really," Rachel replied as she lifted up a drawstring bag and fished for something in it. "You have this!" She drew out some sort of contraption with a downward-pointing convex metal handle and a square screen that looked like it held a speedometer. It looked like it would be something Leo would make.

"This is a Love-O-Meter, the goddess told us. It will help you find love, attraction, or a simple crush based on the different levels it has."

The two boys got nearer to Rachel, studying the tool. The speedometer-looking box was split into four sections on an arc, each section with its own intervals of ten and adding up to a total of 40: the first section was green, labeled as "Attraction"; the second was "Crush", color-coded in yellow; the third was "Love", stained red; and lastly, the fourth was called "Object", which was purple. There were two needles to indicate what level of love existed between two persons, and a knob on the side said "ON/OFF".

Rachel began again, "The purple is for objects that emit an aura of love. That's where this nifty thing comes in."

Chiron took over the conversation. "The mirror belongs to Aphrodite, if you haven't guessed it already. She said that it has powers of love, but she didn't tell us exactly what it did. Aphrodite just told us that the Love-O-Meter would lead the way when it got close to it with Object."

"And," Rachel continued from the centaur's sentence, "this is pretty cool, too. Watch."

The red-haired girl pointed the device at the two boys and turned it on. A sudden whirring noise sounded and a red needle that magically adopted the word "PERCY" was seen moving from zero in the Attraction section to 22 in the Love section. Percy's eyes widened and a blush spread across his cheeks. A black needle that adopted the word "JASON" moved up to 15 in the Crush section, and a tinge of pink found its way on Jason's face as he incredulously looked at both Rachel and Percy.

"Oh my gods!" Rachel squealed under her breath.

"Alright, that's enough," Chiron said. Rachel giggled and turned the machine off. Percy felt  _highly_  uncomfortable at that moment. He wanted to leave the room and crawl under a rock, never to see the light of day again.

But he also felt a twitch of happiness stem from somewhere in his core. The machine said Jason was  _15_ , so at least Percy was able to confirm that fact that Jason at least had a  _crush_  on him. Now Percy wasn't alone.

He still wanted to hide, however.

Jason's face hadn't fared better. The son of the sea god observed that Jason looked perhaps as flustered as Percy felt, which made Percy feel a little better. If he was feeling awkward, so should Jason.

Chiron broke the tension. "Anyways, you two will leave tomorrow at sunrise. Argus will drive you to the train station out of New York and you will travel to Boston first thing in the morning. Got it?"

Grateful for the change in mood, Percy and Jason nodded quickly as if the two were waiting to bolt out of the Rec Room the first chance they got. Rachel handed Jason the Love-O-Meter and Chiron dismissed them, the boys keeping their composure to leave the room coolly.

They left the Big House in unison, although Jason didn't bother to hold the door open for Percy this time. As they entered the sunshine in for what seemed like ages, Percy cracked a smile. "Fifteen, huh Grace?" Jason's face splashed a hue of pink.

"Shut up, Jackson-Twenty-Two," Jason said, prompting Percy's ears to turn red.

"At least I can dance," Percy countered.

"At least I was on top," Jason retorted, smirking.

If Percy's ears were red, Percy's face was scarlet. He didn't know whether to be offended by the attack to his pride or embarrassed that Jason said that out loud. Regardless, the boys glared at each other, but Jason had an annoying, cocky smirk on his lips that accentuated his cute scar.

At the same time, Percy wanted to punch Jason and kiss him. He opted to punch Jason lightly in the arm. Even if Jason had a crush on him, that doesn't mean Jason would ever make another move. He  _did_  say that they wouldn't ever do something like kiss again.

In response to the light punch in the arm, Jason taunted, "Not denying it, Jackson? You must've liked it a lot to not have anything to say."

Flustered, Percy came back. "In your dreams,  _superman_."

"I was pretty super then, wasn't I?" Jason grinned cockily.

Percy, flushed, spoke through gritted teeth. "Shut up, Grace."

But the unexpected happened. Nothing  _big_ , but enough to make Percy's heart skip a beat. Maybe Percy was just fangirling over the fact that Jason would even do something as small as that.

Jason ruffled Percy's hair.

The dark-haired teen was stunned at this, looking at the ground temporarily. He made the tiniest of yelps at the contact, but Jason heard it. The blonde even chuckled. Percy simply blushed and looked away.

The son of Jupiter, however, put a hand on Percy's shoulder. Percy looked up into contacted cerulean eyes, unsure of what was going to happen next. He vaguely remembered that they were in public, just outside the Big House. Jason leaned in and the Sea Prince took in the slightest of breaths through his nostrils so that it was filled with the delicious smell of Jason.

"Look," Jason began, three inches away from the elder teen's face. "Just because I have… _whatever_  I have for you doesn't mean we're getting together or anything. I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

The raven-haired teen visibly slumped and his heart dropped into an internal grinder he didn't know he had. As he stared into those beautiful piercingly sky blue eyes and processed the audio information that the younger teen said, Percy paled. But he accepted that fact—he didn't want to be hurt again like he just was, so he accepted that there was no hope in that instant.

Percy remained silent as he looked down, shadows casting over his eyes. "I-I know, Jason." His voice was a little shaky, but he hoped the blonde didn't hear it.

"We're both guys," Jason said, "And… We're bros, right?" Jason sounded lighthearted about it, as if he were trying to reconcile any damage he just caused.

Percy still felt hurt, but he nodded, keeping his head down. "Y-yeah. We're bros." It actually  _hurt_  to say that. Percy wanted more than just "bros," even if he knew that wasn't possible. Besides, how could Jason think like that even after what they had done? Oh well. There was no use in trying to think about it. It would never happen.

Jason smiled down warmly at the dark-haired boy but Percy missed it. The blonde squeezed the elder's shoulders and walked away, asking, "I'll meet you here in the morning tomorrow?"

Not bothering to look up, Percy weakly said, "Yeah. Morning." At that, Jason walked off completely, leaving a stranded son of the sea god in the open out in front of the Big House. The majestic  _Sky Fleet_  protruded off in the distance on its freshly made landing pad in an open field. The pattern on the balloon portion looked like a face that seemed to laugh at Percy's misery.

He hated Aphrodite for what she did to him. This is honestly worse than having Gaea wake up. Well, minus the destruction of the earth part. Why did she do this to him? And why did she make Percy fall hard for  _Jason_ , Mr. Perfect, of all people? And why hadn't his father intervened? He felt abandoned—neglected. Even it was revenge for Ares, this was cruel.

_Why did the gods hate him?_


	5. Welcome to Boston

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting in forever. Enjoy! Oh, and I'm sorry for my fighting scene. It's rather embarrassing, but I'm not used to writing that kind of material, lol.
> 
> Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians does not belong to me as the series and the sequel series The Heroes of Olympus rightfully belongs to Rick Riordan.

He woke with a sweat and a swallowed scream.

Shaking, cold, and feelings of dread washed over Percy immediately. His throat was raw—he must’ve been screaming in his sleep. Fortunately, he realized that he was in Cabin Three and not in Tartarus, where his nightmare had taken place. The memory of that place still haunted him, but his recollection of events from there was made worse when he remembered that those events happened with Annabeth.

Annabeth. The She-Devil spawn of Athena. The gods had cursed Percy and made him fall for her—her wit, her charm, her looks. The gods had cursed him the moment the two met each other all those years ago.

Somewhere along the string of life, the Fates had decided that Annabeth would rip the sea prince’s heart out and let it bleed in front of everyone. If Percy had to put a word to his emotions, he wouldn’t call it hate, but it would definitely be close to it. More like _immense detestation_. Big words for him, but the most accurate ones he found in a dyslexic dictionary.

He had shared with her the horrors of the Underworld’s deepest pit and let down his walls around her. He had shown and told her of things he thought he would never show or tell anyone else. When someone is on the brink of death— _literal_ Death—one feels compelled to tell any companion they are with all of their secrets and worries, as if a confession of one’s guilt would soothe, assuage, or mitigate the immediate problems ahead. Percy snorted at his own stupidity.

They went deeper into the bowels of Tartarus holding hands, smiling for each other, keeping one another sane for the rest of the trek and for what? Just so she could turn around at the first available opportunity and gut his love for her like a pig. Tartarus was bad enough, but the terrors of Hell are aggravated when Annabeth’s involvement is brought into light.

He relaxed the jaw he hadn’t noticed tensed up and released the sheets he had gathered up in his fists underneath him. A thousand times worse did his feelings of horror amplify when he thought of the girl whom he once loved and how all they went through was so easily forgotten out of spite for something beyond his control.

Once his heart rate dropped and his breathing normalized itself, Percy removed his covers off him and got up to prepare for the journey ahead. He was _so_ not looking forward to spending more time with the Golden Boy. It had finally gotten through to him that Jason would never want anything romantic to do with Percy.

Percy winced at the thought but went to take care of his hygiene. When he finished, he peered out of his cabin’s door toward the dark sky and estimated that it was around 5:30 in the morning. As much as he looked forward to his quest with Jason, he loved waking up early—sarcastically, of course.

Groaning to himself, he got dressed and left his cabin to walk to the Dining Pavilion, the earliest and only camper there. There were, of course, fires lit on marble pillars so he could see, but other than the dance of the flames, the scene was still. Percy went to his table and the plate that seemed to be eternally present at its predetermined place on the tablecloth magically spawned blue food suitable for breakfast. After offering a small piece of his meal to the gods—which gods he himself wasn’t sure of, what with their abandonment and all—he sat down and ate in silence.

Luckily there was no camper out and about at the time who might’ve seen him sitting all alone. For once, Percy wanted to be alone, away from the company of others. It was a strange fancy, but with the recent current of events, it was something he desired more strongly than anything else at the moment. No pat on the back, no sharing a table with another, no “Hey, Percy!” He preferred that and embraced the quietness of the setting.

Maybe he wanted to be alone so he could wallow in his thoughts. “ _We’re bros, right?_ ” Jason had asked the day before. _Gods_ , if only the blonde-haired idiot knew how that made Percy feel! Jason might as well have taken an Imperial Gold knife and shoved it in his chest, twisting and turning it, burying it to the hilt. It _hurt_ to hear Jason say that.

They’re both guys, he gets that. Guys are supposed to be tough and all that—sexism aside—he gets that. The _machismo_ and courage that comes with being a boy is something that should come natural to a male demigod, right? So why did it hurt so much to hear Jason ask those three little words?

Percy was not a romantic; he never was and never will be. He didn’t understand the dealings of love the way the members of the Aphrodite Cabin did, nor did he want to. He just wanted to know why it had felt like a blow to his inner being. That stupid contraption, the ridiculous Love-O-Whatever-It-Was-Called, had said Percy was in the love section with Jason, even if just barely. Percy was so stupid to let his feelings develop to the degree which it did. Of course Jason wouldn’t reciprocate them: Jason was straight, and as far as Percy thought, so was he.

Then _why_ did it feel so _right_ when he was dancing with Jason that fateful night as his instructor? Jason had held him so perfectly that Percy’s face went as hot as an active volcano—and Percy found that he _liked_ it! The spike in body and face temperatures, the butterflies located in the pit of his stomach, the feelings of intense happiness when Jason smiled at him, and the backflips that his stomach does when Jason touched him—what did it all mean?

Yet deep down inside Percy knew he was a fool to let his feelings get the better of him. They were _guys_. _Straight guys_ at that. Before that little “incident,” Percy would have never thought of Jason or any other boy in that way. Yet, because of some whiny war god, Percy had to get all hot and bothered around a certain blonde-haired boy. He didn’t even like the boy! Sure, they were originally “bros” and all that, but beyond looking out for each other and saving the other’s neck, there was no romantic or sexual connection there at all.

So, Percy figured, instead of letting his feelings for Jason get any worse than they are now, Percy was merely going to stifle them and ignore the fact that they even exist. That’s what Jason obviously wants and it’s what should have been done in the first place.

“Hey, Perce,” a sudden voice whispered in his ear.

Percy jumped and hit the back of his head with the face of the other boy. “Ow!” Percy said, grabbing his head as he turned around and blushed at a sneaky Jason. Continuing the whisper, Percy whisper-shouted, “Idiot! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Jason grabbed his nose from pain and chuckled softly. Percy really had to put a lot of effort into bottling up those feelings of his because he was practically swooning from the sound of Jason’s laugh.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Jason said while laughing.

“Yeah, fat chance,” Percy muttered, consciously trying to cool his face from the previous proximity of the two.

Jason simply smiled and turned to Percy’s table. Whispering, he asked, “Mind if I take a seat?”

“You know it’s against the rules to sit at another god’s table, right?” Percy reminded Jason, the goody-two-shoes who always followed procedure. Besides, Percy really didn’t want to be anywhere near Jason any more than he had to. It’s unhealthy for him.

“So?” Jason challenged.

Percy raised an eyebrow at Jason’s uncharacteristic proposal. “Oh? You’re a rule-breaker now?”

“What can I say? I’m a badass.”

Percy laughed at that. “ _Right_ , such a badass.” He rolled his eyes. “Fine, be my guest. But don’t blame me when Poseidon tries to drown you.”

Jason sat down to Percy’s immediate left and far too close for comfort for Percy. With all the space at the table, Jason arbitrarily chose the spot that was close enough so that their elbows and knees could touch. Percy blushed and scooted over a little to his right.

“If he tries to drown me, I’m sure my badassery will save me.” Jason puffed out his chest and looked cockily forward with his chin up.

Was it Percy or did the Dining Pavilion suddenly get really hot? Something about Jason’s cockiness was really attractive to Percy and he soon felt himself compelled to lean on his companion’s shoulder. He didn’t, of course, but he sure as Hades wanted to.

 _What am I thinking?_ Percy asked himself. _I am_ not _going to let myself fall for his… Whatever it is. I already said I was going to shut out my feelings for him and that’s exactly what I plan on doing._

“If he tries to drown you, I’m sure you’ll drown,” Percy said, causing Jason to pout. Gods, why was he so cute?

Percy cleared his throat after some time of silence, his face warm and his stomach fluttering with butterflies at sixty miles per hour. It’s maybe six o’clock now and the sun still isn’t up. It won’t be up for about another hour or so. With the darkness blended to the fires on the pillars, Percy couldn’t help but look at Jason’s face and admire his strong features, how the light accented him perfectly…

He cleared his throat again and Jason looked over from his food. “You okay, bro?”

There it was again. _Bro_. A pang of pain ricocheted through Percy’s insides at the innocently-aimed word. _Watch yourself, Percy. You’ll only hurt yourself more if you’re not careful with your feelings_.

“Y-Yeah,” the raven-haired teen stuttered. He mentally cursed himself for showing weakness but shrugged it off in the end. “I’m fine.”

When the pair jointly finished their meals, they both got up and left to go toward the front of the camp. Thankfully, no one found out that Jason was sitting at the wrong table; Percy didn’t want Jason to get in trouble because of him, even though he basically told him that he wouldn’t care what happened to him.

“Ready to go?” Jason asked.

Percy nodded and the two walked toward the front of the Big House, where they originally arranged to meet. They walked in silence, neither really up for much talking since it was so early in the morning, and Percy feeling very awkward. What happened to those moments together with Jason where they really were just bros, where there was no awkwardness or tension? What happened to those moments alone together where they could just _be_ and not have to worry about what the other is thinking? He surely missed those moments.

By the time they reached the Big House, it was about six-thirty and Argus was already waiting for them, clad in a worker’s uniform and a nametag that read “Aaron.” Percy presumed that the name was chosen to blend with other mortal names since they were going out into public. The hundred-eyed man was silent and stoic, gesturing for the two boys to follow him.

Argus led them to a van that had the Delphi Strawberry Co. logo on it. He opened the back door and the boys climbed in, Argus moving to the driver’s seat.

The back of the van went dark when the doors closed and was filled with boxes of what smelled like strawberries. Percy couldn’t really tell since he hadn’t looked at them when he entered. He heard the van turn on but the windows had what Percy was sure was an illegal limousine tint to them, so the already dark outside was made even darker. The only light in the cold back of the van came from two sources of tiny yellow-orange rectangles along the bottom edges of either side.

Jason had been opposite Percy when the two nestled down, but after the doors closed Percy couldn’t really discern his companion’s position. Their feet had touched due to the cramped space, but Percy had almost immediately withdrew them and sat with his legs crossed so they wouldn’t have any more unnecessary physical contact.

As it happened, Jason scooted directly next to Percy; the only way the son of Poseidon knew this was because of the shuffling he heard and the foreign presence of a new heat that emanated from his immediate right. He panicked. “What’re you doing, Grace?” Percy asked hesitantly.

“I’m cold,” he answered simply. Percy wanted to push him, to say that what he did was unacceptable, to move to the opposite side to get away from him, but Percy had refrained from doing any of those. Instead, he inwardly complained to himself and acquiesced to his situation, believing that no matter what he did, the stubborn Jason would just end up next to him regardless. He sighed.

“Then get a blanket,” Percy said after some time of silence.

“Body heat is much warmer, and I didn’t see a blanket in the back when we came in.”

Percy hadn’t the faintest idea why it was cold in the back of a metal van in the middle of summer, but he surmised that it had to do with the fact that it was morning and the midday heat had yet to impose itself on unsuspecting victims. By the time the van left the camp, the sun was already rising on the horizon, but with the dark-tinted windows and the lack of proper interior lights, the back of the van remained incredibly dark. Percy want to simply focus on the cold of the van as opposed to his companion, but even that made him think of Jason’s warm body next to him.

His face turned a light shade of red, and he was glad that the van was so dark or Jason might have seen him. He knew he was supposed to suppress his feelings for his friend, but Jason was giving him such a hard time when it came to that. Percy would’ve scooted over to his left, away from Jason, but there was a pile of boxes that prevented him from doing that. Percy mentally cursed in Greek.

Jason, much to Percy’s dismay, had scooted even closer to Percy, to which Percy looked bewildered at the man on his right. Again, the darkness of the van had fortunately provided enough shade to mask his pink cheeks. “You don’t have to get so close, you know,” Percy admonished.

In truth, a small part of Percy secretly enjoyed the fact that Jason got closer. They were physically touching at that point: Percy’s crossed legs touched Jason’s at the knees, their thighs made contact, and their shoulders bumped. It was all Percy could do to not lean his head on Jason’s shoulder—as much as he wanted to. But the memory of Jason’s use of the word “bro” came back into his mind and a wave of ambivalent discontent washed over Percy. He resolved he’d have to stay seated the way he was for the rest of the ride, knowing Jason’s annoyingly stubborn attitude.

“I do if I want to get warm. I’m shaking!”

It was true—Percy had felt Jason’s body shiver against him and started to worry that his blood was too thin for this unnatural cold. Percy figured that because Jason was a West Coast kind of guy, he wasn’t used to New York’s mix of hot _and_ cold. Jason would just be used to the heat.

Percy inwardly laughed at one of Jason’s rare quirks, but also found himself caring for his best friend’s well-being. After acquiescing to his uncomfortable position, Percy went silent. Between being in the middle of crates of strawberries and Jason’s unmovable body, and the fact that there was little room to stretch out his legs, Percy developed leg cramps and a sense of restlessness.

Naturally, Percy began to squirm to adjust himself. Jason’s Roman training really aided his ability to keep a stoic face on while Percy did so, but his expression quickly turned annoyed when Percy persisted. Unfortunately for Percy’s fortitude, Jason decided to turn his annoyance into a game.

“You know,” Jason smirked through the dimness, “if you wanted to rub against me that badly, you could’ve asked.”

With the sun slowly rising and filtering the light through the blackened windows, Percy’s heated face was just noticeable to Jason. He winked and Percy looked at him with his mouth agape.

 _Well fuck me_ , Percy thought to himself. _I’m so fucked_. He hated himself for falling for that blonde idiot he called his best friend. Why did Jason say that? He had no idea. One second Jason’s telling Percy to back off—the next, he’s getting all touchy-feely. It’s at that point Percy realizes that he ought to see a psychologist. He’s going insane, what with Jason’s bipolar attitudes.

“W-What?” Percy choked out. His face was still on fire, and he was especially taken aback when Jason suddenly threw his arm around Percy’s shoulders. The son of Poseidon let out a muffled yelp and looked incredulously at Jason.

All Jason said was, “What? I’m cold and you seem to be uncomfortable.”

Some excuse that is. Jason was _totally_ testing him. After recovering from his surprise, and after some time of trying to push down his now-noticeable blush, Percy attempted to shrug Jason’s arm off to show that he was legitimately trying to forget about his feelings.

Jason ignored such attempts and kept his arm cemented to where it was.

Percy could practically feel the smirk Jason had plastered on his face—as if Jason knew what he was doing. The bastard probably _did_ know, which made it worse. In the end, with Jason’s pulling, Percy succumbed to the pressure and actually leaned on Jason’s shoulder. One thing was certain: It was definitely warmer like that, and much more comfortable. And that damned cologne Jason always wore slowly crept its way into Percy’s nose, swirling in his head and intoxicating him…

Percy didn’t know his eyes were closed until Jason spoke up. “Comfortable?” Percy’s eyes snapped open and heat rushed back to his face. Percy just responded with a grunt and nodded, afraid that his voice would betray his conflicting feelings.

They stayed like that for the rest of the ride, Percy uncomplaining.

**-PJ &TO!-**

When they arrived at Penn Station, Argus had given the boys four tickets for the trip to and from Boston; gave Jason specifically a duffle bag with his sword, some mortal money, and the Love-O-Meter; and bid them farewell to depart rather quickly. Percy had found it odd that as their driver turned to leave, he swore he felt all of his one hundred eyes looking critically at him and Jason, as if he knew something occurred between them that they themselves hadn’t known. Percy shivered and turned to his companion.

“Ready?” Percy asked.

Jason nodded, not talking. Percy was glad that Jason hadn’t brought up that little scene in the van. He was _not_ in the mood to talk about that, being as confused as he was.

They walked together, Percy not paying much attention to his surroundings as much as he did back at Camp Half-Blood. The only things his focus was fixated on were the people around them for any monsters, and Jason himself. They boarded the train at 7:30, expecting to get to Boston by 12:30. When they found their seats—Chiron was generous enough to book first class for the boys—they were greeted by a pretty, smiling attendant who kindly directed them to take a seat. The seats swiveled and were made of an extremely soft red fabric, which Percy thought was velvet but was uncertain. Heavy, embroidered curtains framed the scenic window that occupied the space large enough for the both of them to see out comfortably. When the train began to move, the same attendant that directed them to their seats asked if the boys wanted anything to eat or drink, to which Percy responded by asking for a blue Coke. The attendant gave him a funny look and told him that they only offer regular-colored Coke and Percy settled for that.

Spending all this alone time with Jason was really getting to Percy’s head. It was nice to be able to not have an awkward moment between them for once, to just be friends. It got to his head when they had to sit rather close to each other where others could clearly see them. He’s not one to be shy, but something about having the potential to be seen by strangers with Jason made him uncomfortable.

However uncomfortable he was, regardless, he tried to make the most of it by trying to rekindle the “best friendship” they had long ago. For the first hour on the train, they spent it talking about things that normal non-demigod boys would talk about: Sports, video games (those they heard were good but were never able to really try because of their status as half-mortal), hobbies, and favorite stuff. Jason was, unsurprisingly, a big tennis fan, and Percy was really into skateboarding. They went on about the classics of video games like _Super Mario_ or _Donkey Kong_ , and they admitted that for hobbies, both of them liked to swim, albeit Percy was a bit more enthusiastic about it than Jason. In terms of things that were considered their favorite, Percy, without hesitation, said anything blue, and Jason responded with brownies.

Admitting only to himself, Percy internally agreed that he missed Jason’s friendship. He legitimately enjoyed learning more about the odd creature in front of him, although when he thought about it, he figured Percy was probably the weirder of the two. Regardless, he saw this “bonding” experience as a way to grow their friendship, and perhaps a way to restore things back to normal.

Everything was fine and dandy up until the point where they brought up their exes. Percy’s famous grin faltered when Jason had raised the subject to the conversation and a sudden distaste took hold of his mouth. He hadn’t told Jason of his nightmares involving Tartarus, nor did he ever plan to, but the fact that he subconsciously involved Annabeth in his dreams regarding the most perilous time of his life did not add a very pleasant flavor to his mood.

Not to mention that thinking of _her_ led to thoughts of the night of exposure, which led to Jason…

“You okay?” Jason asked, afterward noting that Percy’s face was red and looked feverish. Percy shook his head.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just…” _Just what?_ he asked himself. _Now’s the time to open up to Jason if I want to. Let him know what I’m thinking, how I’m feeling._ Percy was conscious of the fact that if he told Jason what he was feeling, Jason might not reciprocate by telling Percy how Jason felt. And then he was suddenly aware that Jason was waiting for him to finish his sentence. He threw caution to the wind.

“I was just thinking of how stupid I was for trusting Annabeth,” he continued.

“You’re not stupid,” Jason reassured him immediately. “She was your girlfriend for a long time, and even waited for you to come back while our memories were erased and you were at Camp Jupiter. I would’ve trusted her with my life, too.”

 Percy looked down at the velvet seat and began to run his hand over the soft fabric, finding comfort in doing so. It eased whatever pain and anguish he had. Quietly, Percy murmured, “We went through Tartarus together.”

Jason tensed at this, assumingly because he knew that that was a sensitive subject for Percy. He continued: “We looked out for each other, saving the other’s neck and even fighting for each other when one of us thought we weren’t going to make it.” Percy’s voice began to tremble and he spoke even quieter. “We had complete trust in each other.”

There was silence for a time. Jason looked like he had wanted to say something, but decided to let Percy continue in the same quiet voice.

“I loved her, you know. I probably still do, but after what she did… I-I don’t know why she did it. We had complete faith in each other, and one mistake…”

Jason flinched at the word “mistake,” as if he were the problem. But Percy hadn’t cared—by that time, he was speaking with his heart, showing a moment of vulnerability to Jason. He wasn’t able to stop himself.

“After the things that we did together, the things that we _saw_ together, I still can’t believe that she was able to do something like that. And then even after all this time of wanting to be with her and getting her finally—I remember that day like it was yesterday, when I kissed her the first time. It was the greatest day of my life, like it was the universe’s apology gift for making me a half-blood. I remember how being with Annabeth felt so _right_ , like it was the most natural feeling in the world. Then… That night came.”

Percy rarely cries, if at all, but he’d be lying to himself if he said he was completely straight-faced at that moment. His eyes watered and his voice dipped high and low, almost like he was competing with himself to control the tone of his voice. Once his voice cracked, and his throat began to burn and feel tight, the same sensations one gets when crying. He blinked and a lonely tear escaped his eye, making its slow trail down his cheek. He hated showing this side of him to Jason, but he wasn’t thinking straight. Even if the other passengers saw him, he didn’t give a damn. All his bottled-up emotions, his pent-up feelings—they were leaving at once like the water pouring from a broken dam.

Percy was about to croak out more talking, but Jason put a thumb to Percy’s face to wipe away the tear. When Jason went over to give Percy a hug, it wasn’t a romantic hug, nor was it a pity hug; it was a hug of friendship, one filled with comfort meant to console him. There was no awkwardness that time, just pure friendship, a man-to-man session of assurance that everything would work out the way they needed to.

Percy was grateful that Jason hadn’t said the usual “Everything’s going to be all right” or that sympathetic “I’m sorry.” Jason understood him that way, and knew that that was not what Percy needed. Jason just held Percy tightly, quietly, while putting his hand on Percy’s back in a comforting manner.

They stayed like that for a bit, but Jason withdrew when Percy snapped out of his episode of depression and decided he was suddenly uncomfortable.

“Piper isn’t as close to me as Annabeth was to you,” Jason started after a moment’s silence, “but there was that undeniable connection we both felt for each other. When I went to talk to her at the Forum, she seemed so damaged that it hurt to see her like that. We officially broke it off then, but only after she managed to make me feel _really_ guilty. I doubt she knows she was using charmspeak—I think she did it unconsciously to make me feel even worse.”

Percy was surprised that Jason returned opening up. Unfortunately, Jason chose not to continue the subject, but Jason doing such an act in the first place was totally bizarre to Percy. He decided not to press the matter further, instead opting to talk about their futures in New Rome or wherever they planned to spend time. Jason’s occupation as _Pontifex Maximus_ was highly taxing after the war had finished, and even after some time had passed his job wasn’t even done. There were maybe two-hundred more spirits and deities he still had to cover, so he figured he would be doing that for a long time before finally settling down and retiring like other campers who become adults.

They talked about random topics like that for some time, catching up on things they never really had time to talk about aboard the _Argo II_. It wasn’t until about 11:50 when the train suddenly screeched to a halt in the middle of Massachusetts that they realized they were too engrossed in their own conversation with each other to preoccupy themselves much with the quest at hand.

The intercom told them to forgive the train because they had run into “unpredicted simultaneous technical and weather difficulties.” When the two looked outside the window, they saw a storm was brewing and immediately became suspicious, their demigod senses kicking in.

Their earlier attendant, who was wearing a longer skirt than the rest of the attendants, and was the only one with orange hair, had walked up to them. “Mr. Jackson and Mr. Grace, the captain would like to see you.”

Percy glanced at Jason and they silently agreed to be on their guard. “Okay,” Jason said, rising. They followed the attendant past numerous train cars and headed toward the back, although Percy found it highly unlikely that the captain was in the rear. Percy put his hand in his pocket and curled his fingers around Riptide, just in case. Jason carried his open duffle bag with him that hid his gladius extremely well—which surprisingly made it past security at Penn Station.

It’s been a while since Percy fought a monster since his stay at New Rome and recent travel to Camp Half-Blood. So when the attendant called them by their full name, turned around, and bared her fangs, Percy was ready.

She was an _empousa_ disguised by the Mist. When she revealed herself, her orange hair lit up and turned to flames, her canines elongated and turned into fangs, and her long skirt suddenly retracted a bit into light armor and revealing the foot of a donkey and another prosthetic leg made of bronze. It didn’t take long for Percy to draw Riptide and for Jason to throw his bag at her, grabbing his sword before doing so.

The _empousa_ shrieked as the duffle bag hit her square in the face and clawed at it so she could toss it down. “You will pay for that!” she declared as she lunged at Jason.

Percy had never seen an _empousa_ move that fast before but didn’t have much time to think about that as he parried an attack from her. She moved like a ninja—a blur of acrobatic movement that was just barely able to be blocked, and even then only with the most careful eye.

Percy wasn’t sure how she was able to do all the kung fu-type movements with her donkey leg, but she aimed at either of their necks with her fangs whenever she had the opportunity. If Percy or Jason didn’t have the fighting experience that they had, they probably would’ve been killed by then.

Luckily they were in the back of the train, where all of the passengers wouldn’t be able to see them. A couple of _crashes!_ here and there might make the mortals curious, but no one would get up from their seats to investigate. Fortunately as well for the two, they outnumbered the monster lady. Unfortunately, she was skilled enough to fend them both off. She must’ve been an ancient _empousa_ or something because she was _skilled_.

Jason slashed his sword at her with ease, his Roman training kicking in to provide perfect form. She easily dodged it and lunged at him, her hands getting ready for what seemed to be a jab. Percy was having none of it so he aimed his sword at her back, but she dodged him and back-kicked him in the stomach.

Percy was sent flying back against a coffee maker on a counter. The hot contents of the machine sprayed itself all over him, and he got the idea of using the coffee against the ninja _empousa_. While Jason electrified his sword, Percy got up, grabbed the coffee pot, and threw the remainder of the liquid onto the donkey lady. She screamed and put her hands to her face, yelling, “My face! My beautiful face!” and hissed quite loudly.

Jason didn’t choose to miss this opportunity, and with a swift swipe of his blade, cut cleanly through her, creating a shower of yellow powder.

When the adrenaline died down, Percy realized that his back was scorching. He gasped when his shirt moved over where the coffee had burned him and noticed he did _not_ want it to move again. He whimpered and clung to the front of his shirt tightly so that it would stay in place.

“You okay, bro?” Jason asked, noticing Percy’s pained face.

“Ah,” Percy said through clenched teeth, “yeah. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine—you’re burned. I can see it on the back of your neck.”

“No, seriously, it’s cool,” Percy said, still holding onto his shirt so it wouldn’t brush over his skin.

“Take off your shirt,” Jason ordered, while tugging on the hem of Percy’s shirt. “You need to put water on it.”

Percy reluctantly agree to do so, cringing and growling as the cloth tortuously prickled its way over Percy’s red flesh. When it came off, Percy sighed in relief, glad that the pain was slightly eased. Percy was a little miffed when he realized that there was a sink he could’ve used to attack the _empousa_ , but he stayed silent as Jason went to administer his aqueous first-aid. Jason grabbed a towel and, putting it under the current of water, wet it and placed it on Percy’s back. Percy hissed in appreciation, his body absorbing the water like a sponge. The burn slowly went away as Jason continued his ministrations, and Percy began to feel as good as new.

After some time, however, once his burn faded and his skin was restored to its original state, his face went a bright pink as Jason continued to rub the wet towel over his back. Being shirtless in front of other guys was a normal guy thing to do, but he felt strangely exposed in front of Jason. But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like Jason rubbing his back with the towel.

In fact, Percy whined when Jason stopped. Jason stood back from his intimate actions and said, “We need to get out of here. _Now_.”

It was true; the train had stopped moving in broad daylight—the storm that was brewing earlier had stopped and the clouds parted—and they were in the middle of some hamlet, although Percy guessed they were close to Boston, if the skyscrapers in the distance were anything to go by. Walking, however, would take some time, and the train appeared to be going under repairs that would take longer than going to the city by foot.

Percy nodded to Jason and, after Percy put his coffee-stained shirt back on, they cautiously walked out of the back of the train car, exiting the train for good and entering the sunshine. Now that it was almost noon, it was unbearably hot—and after having scalding hot coffee poured all over his back, Percy thought that he knew what hot was. When they found they were in no imminent danger, Percy capped Riptide and Jason sheathed his sword by placing it back in the duffle bag he recovered when they got off the train.

“Now what?” Percy asked, making a visor out of his hand by placing it over his forehead and scanning the area. Aside from the train tracks, there wasn’t much else for transportation systems. The nearest road was a small one, but Percy waited for what Jason wanted to do.

“Let’s head to that road over there. Maybe we can hitch a ride to the city,” Jason decided. Percy started walking, but Jason stopped him by grabbing his wrist. Percy turned around with a questioning look.

“What?”

“I’ll fly us there. It’s too hot to walk, and flying’s faster.”

Percy pouted but agreed. He stood sort of awkwardly as Jason began to put his arms around Percy’s waist. “D-Do we have to fly like this?” Percy asked, embarrassedly looking away with a tinted red face. He wanted to hate Jason for playing with him like this, but he figured there was nothing he could do. He just had to suck it up and deal with it.

“Unless you want to be dropped while we do it, yes,” Jason insisted as he pressed his body close to him. Percy sighed in an attempt to repress his oncoming blush—and his erection that threatened to pop up from Jason’s firm body touching his own, as he did _not_ want to have a conversation about that with Jason—and continued to look away as Golden Boy began to lift off.

The flight was surprisingly quicker than Percy initially thought it would be—maybe about twenty seconds or so and they were already at the road. Still, being forced to be in such intimate contact with Jason made him all hot and bothered, and he really hoped Jason hadn’t felt his growing pants tent. Fortunately, Jason hadn’t said anything about it.

They continued down the road, hoping for a car to pass so they can hitch a ride into Boston. It was incredibly hot, and neither of the boys felt like talking much other than to complain about the horrible heat. When a car hadn’t come by after half an hour, they gave up in hoping for a ride and continued making the long journey to Boston. What made it worse was that there was no shade to hide under on the main road, so they felt like they were being fried like eggs.

“This is disgusting,” Percy said after some time.

“If you didn’t like being with me, you could’ve just said so,” Jason tiredly joked.

Percy playfully narrowed his eyes at the other and scoffed. “I meant this heat and the sweating. It’s as hot as balls out here.”

“So you _do_ think balls are hot? Interesting,” Jason teased.

Percy’s face, disregarding the reddening from the heat exposure, burned from that comment. “Oh my gods,” he said incredulously. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“You said it, not me.”

“Shut up!” Percy playfully punched Jason in the arm, who just chuckled.

By the time they reached the city limits of Boston, it was almost one in the afternoon. In all honesty, they didn’t look their best: Both boys were drenched in sweat, their faces were red from the sun, and they looked absolutely _done_ with the fact that they had to walk the rest of the way to their destination. Not that they haven’t done worse things before, but it would’ve been a lot faster by train.

But they couldn’t disagree that the city was beautiful. A handful of skyscrapers dotted the landscape, and many colonial-style buildings were cleverly juxtaposed with the styles of modern architecture. Lushes green sprawled everywhere the eye could see, from tall trees to short grass to medium-sized shrubs. However, the boys weren’t there to sightsee.

Jason pulled out the Love-O-Meter from his duffle bag and tried scanning the area. Nothing came up regarding “Object,” so they continued walking around in search of this mysterious love mirror. When he pointed the Love-O-Meter at a couple in a park, the needles, becoming magically labeled as “Justin” and “Marissa,” showed 0 in the Attraction section and 18 in the Crush section, respectively.

Percy looked at the device and felt bad for Marissa, but strangely felt like what he had with Jason was similar.

They spent the next hour, still in the unending heat, scanning area after area for Aphrodite’s mirror. No such thing showed up, and Jason had the brilliant idea that if they ever got close to it, the Love-O-Meter should light up or go crazy, so he put it back in the duffle bag.

What proceeded afterward is difficult to explain: Their day together became more like a date, much to Percy’s pained amusement.

When Jason stated it was too hot, Percy more than readily agreed and they settled for frozen yogurt at a local shop. Percy had gotten blueberry and Jason ordered chocolate, and Jason had paid for them both—with the camp’s money, of course. They sat down in front of each other indoors.

“Y’know,” Jason started, “there’s no better way to cool off than to have frozen yogurt.”

“Mm, you’re right,” Percy nodded. Jason took to eating his with a spoon, but Percy felt he was too hot for civil conventions and ate it without one. Percy would later learn that doing so was a mistake. While Jason raised his spoon to his mouth, Percy lapped his yogurt eagerly with his tongue. Jason swallowed a lump in his throat.

“You really like anything that’s blue, don’t you?” Jason asked, clearly wanting to change the subject.

“Love it.” Percy continued to lick his yogurt innocently. He obliviously made long strokes in the blue creamy substance with his tongue, and it was only after a while that he noticed Jason shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Jason answered a little too quickly. Percy eyed him skeptically but continued his awkward eating habit. When Percy next raised his head from devouring the yogurt with his mouth, a little bit of the blue stuff rested on his cheek. He was about to get it himself, feeling the cold substance where cold should not be, but before he could do anything, Jason randomly leaned over the table and wiped Percy’s cheek with his finger. Percy couldn’t help the blush that spread on his face when Jason put the same finger in his mouth, saying, “No wonder you like it so much—it’s good.”

“I’ve could’ve gotten it, you know,” Percy said shyly while looking away. “But thanks. You know how much I love anything that’s blue.”

 _Including the color of your eyes_ , he thought, but decided to not say that out loud. That would have just made things awkward. Percy had sincerely hoped that Jason would stop his acts of weirdness around Percy, but Jason didn’t seem to have that on his agenda.

When the boys finished, they exited the shop and left to visit Public Garden. Jason had decided that a more crowded area might give off the location of the mirror they were looking for—and Percy secretly thought that Jason just wanted an excuse to go strolling in a park. He had learned during their talk in the yogurt shop that Jason loved going to parks ever since the battle with Gaea was over because it gave him peace. Although Jason had never gone to Tartarus like Percy had, being the _Pontifex Maximus_ was no easy task, so Percy could understand why Jason might feel the need to relax. Besides, Percy could definitely admire the fact that Jason was doing his job so efficiently because Percy didn’t think he could do all that missionary work.

They entered through a place that housed a large statue of George Washington on a horse. It seemed like anyone who could survive outside of a demigod camp could leave their legacy for centuries and still not be forgotten. Percy looked over at Jason, who seemed to smile at the statue. “What’s funny?” Percy asked.

“Son of Athena,” he replied. “If he were a son of Minerva, he probably would’ve never become the president of the United States. He might’ve been the president of a local arts and crafts club.” Percy chuckled at the idea of their most famous president sitting down and weaving garments during the Revolutionary War.

They continued walking together down the paths, taking their time to see everything. They passed the greenest willows, the most vibrant flowers, and a boat with a swan on it as they looked over a bridge. Jason frequently checked the Love-O-Meter to make sure that it wasn’t picking up anything, and after they went to sit on a bench underneath a shady willow. The sun wasn’t as hot as before, and there was a mild breeze that was strong enough to keep them cool in the summer’s climate.

They talked for what seemed like hours on that bench—and the bench to them seemed to have signified something more than just a place to sit. To both Percy and Jason, the bench appeared to symbolize their newfound friendship; they could talk with each other with ease, not worrying about whether if the other would judge them for saying something that deserves criticism. They guarded that bench with their lives, disallowing anyone who asked if they could sit there with them.

When the sun began to lower itself unto the cityscape below, the boys were leaning against each other’s backs for support, facing the opposite directions on the bench and sitting cross-legged. Neither of them particularly knew when that occurred, but they didn’t mind the position. They were, as Percy teasingly put it, _bonding_ , to which Jason promptly elbowed Percy from behind. But they hadn’t separated—not until the sun began to set.

Getting up, the boys left the park after doing another once-over to make sure they hadn’t missed the mirror with the love detection device.

The day slowly dragged its twin along the sky, gradually casting nightfall over Boston and turning the air around Percy and Jason from an orange hue to red, and finally to a blue so dark, it was almost black. The street lamps of the city turned on and they were forced to go running around at night to look for the mirror.

By the time they found it—located in an abandoned dumpster in the city’s historic district—the triangular mirror was covered in grime and mold. The Love-O-Meter went off like a bullhorn and began to flash a million different colors as it pointed toward the well-hidden cosmetic tool. Percy had to touch things he dared not to repeat in order to get access to the mirror, and Jason, using Percy’s support so none of the waste would get on him, fished for it. When the job was done, they fist bumped each other, self-congratulating themselves.

“This,” Percy said as he held the mirror from one of its three corners and extending his arm out as far as possible from his body, “is disgusting.” He wrinkled his nose and tried to not breathe in the filthy smell that emanated from their quest item.

Jason scrunched up his face in an attempt to not inhale the foul scent. “No kidding. Why do you think I made you do it?” He pinched his nose to block the fumes.

Percy lightly punched Jason in the arm with his free hand. “Jerk.”

“You were the one who said you wanted to be the one to deliver it,” Jason countered.

“Yeah, _deliver_. I don’t want to wash this!” Percy exclaimed like a child.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Well you’re going to have to if you want the privilege of giving it to Aphrodite.”

Percy sassily quirked an eyebrow. “You and I both know why I want to give it to her personally.”

“Yeah, yeah, so you can yell at her for liking me.” Jason waved him off. “Even without her influence, though, something tells me you’d still fall for me.”

Percy was so taken aback that he almost accidentally made the mirror touch him in some way. Almost. His mouth agape in a perfect O shape, he asked, “W-what m-makes you say that?” He bit his tongue for stuttering, and then cursed himself for taking a whiff of the mirror.

“You like blondes and I have blue eyes,” Jason said bluntly. “Besides, you think I’m hot.” He raised his arm and put his other hand on his bicep, flexing.

“No way! You’re totally not,” Percy said, although a little voice inside of his head called him a liar. “Get over yourself.” He meant it, but he couldn’t help the playful smile that threatened to form on his lips.

Jason paused, scowling slightly and studied Percy’s face. After a moment, he spoke: “You _totally_ think I’m hot!”

“No I don’t!” Percy declared, his cheeks turning a bright red. “It’s Aphrodite’s magic.” He said that last bit more so to convince himself rather than Jason.

They walked into a restroom in a nearby fast food restaurant to clean the mirror in the sink. In the men’s restroom, their voices reverberated off the tile walls.

“Just admit it,” Jason teased as Percy went to put the reflective triangle under the sink and started scrubbing.

“Admit what?” Percy said, deliberately choosing to look at the mirror and not Jason.

Jason must’ve taken it as an invitation because he was suddenly _way too close_ to Percy. Percy’s face heated up at the sudden proximity and began to scrub faster when he felt Jason’s body heat.

“Admit that you have a thing for me,” Jason said huskily.

Percy dropped the mirror in the sink and frantically went to pick it up. He turned the water off and went to get a paper towel to dry the mirror, choosing not to answer just yet while his heart raced a million miles per hour. _Jason is making this whole “I don’t like you anymore” thing impossible_ , Percy thought.

“You already know how I feel,” Percy muttered quietly. “Just check the love thingy…” They both exited the restroom and the restaurant and explored the night streets.

“I want to hear you say it,” Jason pressed, following a fast walking Percy.

Percy whirled around and yelled, “Why? So you can rub it in my face?”

Jason looked legitimately shocked, and Percy instantly regretted shouting. He looked away, indignant. Percy didn’t know where they were at that point, and to be frank, he didn’t care. He was more worried about the fact that Jason kept messing with his head—and that he may potentially lose one of his close friends over something stupid like artificial love.

“No—” Jason stammered. He sighed. “I just… I like hearing it,” Jason said quietly.

Percy looked at him, an eyebrow cocked skeptically. “What?”

“I like hearing you say that you like me,” Jason repeated.

“I got that. But why?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t really know why. It just… It makes me feel better.”

“About what?” Percy’s curiosity was peaked.

“This whole thing, I guess. After I lost Piper, I don’t really know what happened. And…” Jason wiped the palms of his hands on his pants. “Look, I just like hearing you say it. It’s… Cute.”

And there it was again—that damned ruffling of the hair, although more awkwardly this time than the first time that happened in what seems like forever.

Percy made a quiet yelp from the back of his throat at the contact. _He just called that cute. He called_ me _cute. Or at least what I say. But what I say makes me who I am. So he called me cute. Oh my gods._

He was internally fanboying at the prospect of Jason directly calling him cute. Another blush creeped its way up his neck, especially after the whole hair thing.

“I…I like…you…” Percy said under his breath. He looked away, not wanting to see the smile on the other boy’s face.

After that, an awkwardly comfortable silence covered the rest of their journey. They didn’t particularly know where they were headed, but when they discovered it was ten-thirty at night, they felt a sudden wave of sleepiness hit them. They went looking for an inn or a hotel to stay the night, but worried that they wouldn’t have enough money to stay at one and end up sleeping in the streets.

As it happened, they chanced upon a hotel with a bellhop waiting outside. He instantly recognized both the boys and addressed them by their first name—to which the boys glanced at each other cautiously—and informed them that he was waiting for them. Jason said that there must’ve been some confusion, but the bellhop assured them that there was nothing confusing because Lady Aphrodite already paid for their room.

Being a demigod makes one prone to skepticism, so when Percy asked why she would pay for them, all the bellhop said was that she wanted her brave questors to be safe for the night and have a good rest. When the bellhop finished explaining and the boys were thoroughly satisfied with their new knowledge, the man told them that they have one of the most luxurious suites in the hotel.

The boys, grateful for a comfortable place to stay the night, thanked the mortal bellhop—who apparently could see through the Mist—and went to their room on the thirty-fifth floor. They found their suite number and opened the door with the card they were given, to find a _very_ fancy room…with only one bed.

Percy saw Jason glance nervously at him but decided to think nothing of it. He went to the night table next to the really comfortable-looking bed and his face turned into one of dread. On a pamphlet, it read, “Lover’s Hotel: A Night You’ll Never Forget.”

Percy looked at Jason, and both of them immediately went red and looked away from each other. _We’re just bros. We’re just bros._ Percy had to repeat that in his head multiple times for him to calm down.

“A love hotel?” Jason asked exasperatedly while running his hand through his hair. “Oh my gods, you’ve got to be kidding me.”


	6. Behind the Curtain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains mentions of attempt at suicide. If such material offends you, do not continue to read.
> 
> Otherwise, here's the latest installment for the Kalends of July! SORRY to everyone who's been expecting—I just transitioned to college and...yeah. I'm not gonna make excuses, nevermind. I'm just a lazy piece of Minotaur crap. Thank you everyone who continues to read my material, and who's been patient in waiting for the next chapter! The story is slowing coming to a close, it's almost there. Just a heads up.
> 
> Without further adieu, enjoy~.

_This cannot be happening_ , Jason thought.

It was bad enough that they had to share a room and that they had only one bed—there were ways around that. But the fact that they were in a love hotel made him completely uncomfortable in every way possible.

Spending time with Percy had been great—there was no denying that. After _those_ events, they had finally been able to be bros again, and Jason had missed that bond. In order to accelerate the rebuilding of their friendship, however, Jason thought he'd use a sort of psychological easing where he would diffuse the tension by trying to make Percy comfortable through saying jokes and teasing him about his attraction. Did it work? He wasn't sure, but it was entertaining to see Percy struggle to come up with something to say.

But... He may have taken things too far, because by the time he exclaimed his wanting of Percy to say how he felt about Jason, Jason ended up developing genuine feelings that were much too strong for his taste. That ridiculous contraption, the Love-O-Meter, stripped him of all facades he put up in order to be the strong one that wouldn't succumb to Aphrodite's tricks. Jason was exposed to Percy, Rachel, Chiron, and worst of all, to himself because of the device. He was, at that exact moment, forced to admit to himself that he indeed had feelings for Percy.

He had suppressed them by being aggressive, and his tactics seemed to have worked for the most part, but at the cost of slower friendship-building—if any reconstruction was happening at all. In order to counteract the damage he caused, Jason decided to lighten up about that and went to the more playful route of teasing Percy, and he thought it did what he anticipated and fixed what he messed up. Although, when he reflects on his choices and Percy's reaction to them, he finds he might have caused even more irreparable damage than if he just let it be and stayed aggressive. Jason speculated that Percy had legitimately at some point tried to stop his attraction—as futile as that was, Jason is aware—and that Jason's recent actions only escalated the situation.

Was it on the train that Percy tried? They had been as much as bros as they were back on the _Argo_ _II_ , and even closer there because of their "information session," but Jason didn't think it was then. It must've been earlier, like on the way to the train station. Jason scooted next to Percy in the van to make things easier, and even put an arm around his shoulders to get Percy to relax, but even then Jason didn't think that was the first time Percy had tried to stifle his feelings. It’s not like he just woke up one day and decided, “Hey, I’m going to ignore what I feel for Jason,” right?

Jason looked up realized he had a scowl on his face as soon as he zoomed himself out of his thoughts. He fixed that by making his face neutral and that’s when he noticed that upon the two boys an extremely uncomfortable silence had fallen. Percy had taken to sitting at the edge of the scarlet-colored bed, pretending to busy himself with looking at what was on the room service menu of the hotel that lay on the nightstand next to him and absent-mindedly rubbing his left hand on the smooth but textured bed’s comforter.

In the short span of thirty seconds that had passed from when Jason withdrew from his inner monologue, Percy had not once bothered to look at Jason, as if he were afraid, or anxious, or that Jupiter would strike him if he so much as thought of looking, because he kept his eyes glued to the menu that Jason _knew_ should’ve been read between the time Jason recused himself and now, even if they were both dyslexic; but Percy made no attempts to move or acknowledge his presence, even though the two of them had walked in together, and that slightly offended Jason because it was as if all his efforts to improve their relationship was for naught, or simply that what Jason called “the Bro-lden Days” were now officially over because nothing— _nothing_ —could fix their views toward each other.

 _Or_ , Jason thought, _I’m just overthinking it_.

He could tell Percy was uncomfortable from the unconscious actions he did: the moving of his hand over the bed, the fact that Percy refused to look at him, and that Percy was the only one sitting, as if he were submitting to the prospect that standing would make things even less comfortable. In the time the two spent with each other, Jason had studied Percy, noticing what makes him tick and those slight body language signals that let Jason know if he had said or done something wrong.

Jason, though, was just as uncomfortable—maybe even more because he was standing while his companion was sitting. The bellhop was strange enough, what with him knowing their names, and Jason was suspicious about Aphrodite’s involvement with it; when it was revealed, however, that it was a love hotel, two thoughts occurred in his mind: one, that his suspicions were confirmed about Aphrodite, and two, that the unfamiliar prickling sensation in his cheeks would ever so often crawl from up his neck and make Jason _incredibly_ horny if he didn’t diffuse the situation each time. He could feel his face heat up just thinking about it, actually.

He was a Roman Praetor at one point, a star trainee when he was learning the basics, and in his younger age he would’ve called the current Jason silly and remind him what a trivial task it was to stifle his urges. Although at the moment, it became increasingly difficult to do such a thing the more and more he did it. He learned something in biology when he was in his demigod classes regarding pathogens and diseases that can kill as easily as a knife or claws, something called “superbacteria” involving hand sanitizer that eliminates 99.9% of germs, and the .01% that survives becoming bacteria that evolves to resist the sanitizer after repeated use. In a similar fashion, he’d describe his feelings like that: after repressing them for so long, his urges have evolved into “superurges” where they are no longer affected by any of Jason’s attempts to suppress them.

He’s surprised he made it this far without once pouncing on Percy.

Jason made note of the kitchen that they had as part of the suite. Deciding that he was better off moving or doing some other activity, _any_ activity than just standing around, he went to the sink and got a cup of water for himself. Sipping the water, not really paying attention to its flavor or thinking about whether it was clean, he looked past the counter and toward Percy’s direction, still absorbed in reading the menu.

He took a gulp of water before setting the cup down abruptly with a loud _Clank!_ Percy looked up at Jason with a startled expression, and Jason stated with a look of disgust, “City water always tastes gross.”

Percy’s face turned from startled to amused, looking up at Jason from the bed. Jason wanted to wipe that playful smirk off his face, but at least Percy was giving him the time of day now, and some of the awkwardness that hung in the air dissipated. “Yeah? I know what you mean. Ever had water from the Hudson? _Disgusting_.”

Jason quirked an eyebrow and shifted his weight. “Why’d you drink water from the Hudson?”

Getting up from the bed and making his way slowly toward the kitchen, Percy said, “I was dared to swim across the river one day by some of the Greek campers, and as I was swimming, I wanted to know what the river water tasted like.”

Now it was Jason’s turn to look amused. With Percy zeroing in on him at what felt like a jet’s pace, Jason faintly recognized he had a goofy grin on his face. “You wanted to know—… That’s got to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” He chuckled and could just barely discern a slight tint of red on Percy’s face.

“Maybe, but at least I know _not_ to drink from it again.” Percy was suddenly right next to Jason, and Jason looked at him cautiously.

“My dad taught me a trick,” Percy continued. “It’s only a very, very tiny amount that I’m able to do it to, but I can purify water. I think the most I can do is this cup, actually.” He grabbed the cup before Jason had time to realize what was happening and Percy poked the tip of his pointer finger in what was left of the water, closing his eyes. As he did that, the water magically went from a foggy gray to a crystal-clear. When Percy opened his eyes again and withdrew his finger, he was panting. Clearly that simple act drained a lot out of him.

And instead of thinking Percy’s panting was the most ridiculous thing he’s heard, Jason thought it was one of the sexiest.

Instead of giving into his horny thoughts, Jason suppressed them as much as possible and remembered where they were. When Percy told him to drink up, Jason looked skeptically at Percy but grabbed the cup and took a sip. And in that short moment where his tongue was in contact with the water, he felt a spark of lightning travel through his bones. There wasn’t anything in the world that tasted as good as that water, he reasoned. The water up in Olympus must not even taste so pure. He slowly drank the rest of it, so as to preserve it for as long as possible, and thought that Percy’s water was so indescribably pure and good that Percy must really be something special.

Jason blushed at the prospect of drinking Percy’s water, but ignored it regardless. He decided to say, “Holy Hades that was good. When did you learn to do that?”

Percy shrugged nonchalantly. “During the Battle of Manhattan, I used a sand dollar to clean some of the Hudson and East Rivers. After the war with Gaea, my dad asked me what I wanted as a gift, so I said, ‘I want to drink clean water, like from a sand dollar.’ I was thirsty at the time, so I don’t really know what I was thinking. But he was like, ‘Okay,’ and blessed me with the power to purify a cup’s amount of water.”

Jason blinked blankly at Percy, and then proceeded to laugh. “Wait,” he said in between laughs, “so you were asked what you wanted, and of all the things you could’ve asked for, you asked to drink clean water?” Percy nodded and Jason was left smiling like an idiot at him.

Percy pouted at Jason, asking, “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

 _Because you’re adorable. Not that I’d ever say that. Or think that. Because you’re my bro, right?_ Right?

“No reason,” Jason said while still smiling. “It’s just like the Percy I know to do that.”

Percy reflexively rolled his eyes but then put on a small frown. “What’s the Percy you know?”

“You’re a nice guy who hardly ever thinks about himself. And when you do think about yourself, you never take advantage.”

“I do take advantage!” Percy exclaimed defensively, to which Jason responded with an amused look.

“Oh yeah? Like when?” Jason suddenly remembered the proximity they were in. _Not close enough_ , he thought. He decided to lessen the gap between them by getting in Percy’s personal space, challenging him to counter. This way, Jason could see the tinge of pink on Percy’s cheeks when he did that. He loves making him blush.

“L-like when…” Percy’s voice trailed off. Jason had him on the ropes now. “Like when I tried to teach you to dance!” Jason stiffened his back at the memory and stayed still as Percy used that opportunity to back up a little. “Now you owe me a favor.”

Jason relaxed at the last sentence. “ _I_ owe _you_ a favor? In the short amount of time that we had, I barely learned how to waltz!” Jason wasn’t entirely serious; he didn’t learn much, but he was joking­—a test to see how far Percy would counter him.

 “Maybe, but I still tried to teach you.”

“Didn’t teach me much after we started to—” _Shit,_ Jason thought.

“Started to what?” Percy pressed with that same stupid smirk on his face. Jason’s joke seemed to have backfired on him because now he was the one that was by the ropes.

“Started to… Y’know,” Jason stammered, red-faced. He shrugged and left the kitchen to walk toward the bed.

Perhaps picking a fight with Percy wasn’t the smartest idea, because even if he wasn’t exploitive, he was stubborn. Percy followed him outside of the kitchen and was left standing next to the bed as Jason sat down. “What,” Percy teased, “scared to say it out loud?”

“No, it’s just you know what we did.” Jason _really_ wanted to avoid this conversation. They hadn’t talked about it before because Jason had told Percy to drop the subject, but he backed himself into a corner this time. Besides, some of the blood that was supposed to be used to make his head work properly was slowly migrating down toward his other head after just thinking about what happened.

Of course, Percy wasn’t making this any easier. He sat down on the bed, next to Jason, and faced him with that earnest we-need-to-talk-about-this-and-you’re-not-escaping-this-time look. “Can we at least talk about this?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Jason snapped suddenly. He didn’t mean for it to come out so sharply, but Jason didn’t know what else to say.

A few moments of silence passed, and although Jason had wanted to say something, nothing came out. Instead, Percy spoke after a little bit: “We have to talk about it some time. I don’t know about you, but things are a little awkward for me, and I like being your bro.” At that time, Percy’s playful demeanor had switched to one of seriousness, and Jason was powerless to refuse him.

“I like us being bros, too, Percy. It’s just with the way things are…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. We’re both dudes, I get it—”

“It’s not that,” Jason interjected. “I’m still not used to the idea of… Y’know…”

“The idea of what, Jason? Of us?” Percy asked. His green eyes stared directly into Jason’s blue ones, Jason drinking in all the feelings of confusion and hope from Percy. “Yeah, I mean, we did stuff. But it’s like you said, right? It was a one-time thing? And who cares if I like you—I know you’re not into it, no matter what the Love-O-Meter says.

“And you might be smart, and funny, and kind of dumb-looking—”

“Hey!” Jason said.

“—but at the end of the day, we’re still bros. And I don’t want things to be ruined between us just because some love goddess and her boyfriend decided to mess with us. You’re a great guy, and you can fly! How many people can say that? And you’ve got a level head, and you’re Superman! So I don’t want us to stop being friends, and just forget the fact that we had sex, or that we had this awkward thing going on, or—”

Jason didn’t know from where he got the impulse or why he did it, but he did it: he leaned in, cupped Percy’s face in one hand, and kissed him.

Perhaps it was Percy’s re-confession of his feelings for Jason, or that Percy said “sex” out loud, or maybe it was Jason’s slowly-rising erection that had made him do it, but Jason made out with the one and only boy in front of him. Their eyes were closed and Jason’s clammy hand cupped Percy’s warm face. Their teeth clacked at first with each other, but that got Percy to stop babbling like the adorable idiot he was. If Jason was being honest with himself, he probably kissed Percy just so he wouldn’t take Percy right then and there.

Percy’s lips were sweet, as pure as the water that Jason had downed not long before. Jason could tell Percy was totally into it, but knew he was also probably confused. Jason ignored his inner guilt, realizing during the heat of the kiss that once they break apart, Jason will just hurt Percy again if he’s not careful. But Jason didn’t want to think about that yet—he had wanted to enjoy the moment, to revel in their kiss for as long as they could hold their breath.

Their synchronous kiss was surrounded in a cyclone of passion, Jason not at all caring about his sexual orientation image for the time being. Whirling around the two, in the room of reds and hearts and seduction, were all the silent emotions that lay buried beneath layers upon layers of insecurities and unsureness. Jason’s insides electrified with a particular excitement that riled him up even more, but as the imaginary cyclone began to fade and the emotions to collapse back inside, Jason became astutely aware of where they were and why he had kissed Percy in the first place. Love’s chokehold on them both had stolen their breath from them, and they were forced to separate for air.

They slowed away from each other, Jason, in a dream-like state, gently opening his eyes to look in the green ones across from him. He subconsciously ran his thumb on Percy’s reddened cheek, his hand still cupping Percy’s face. Jason smiled softly, saying just as soft, “You were talking too much.”

Percy’s face went redder and he smiled while looking down. “Sorry, guess I got carried away.”

Jason’s face took on a playful smirk and ducked his head down to meet Percy’s low gaze. “We can still be bros, you know.”

Percy lit up at the prospect, like a child getting a new toy. “That kiss wasn’t very bro-like, Jason,” he teased.

“Maybe, but that’s why we can’t do that all the time.”

An eyebrow on Percy’s face raised curiously. “All the time? You mean there’s gonna be more?”

“We’ll see,” Jason said while winking and biting his lower lip. Jason removed his hand from Percy’s warm face and rose from the bed, leaving a flustered Percy. He began to remove his shirt and pants, and Percy began to freak.

“W-what’re you doing, Jason?” Percy was awkwardly staring at the wall facing away from Jason, and Jason smiled.

“There’s a private hot tub past that door,” Jason pointed. “It was on the cover of the brochure you supposedly read.” Jason removed his boxers, glad Percy was turned around, and grabbed a nearby towel to cover his waist. “Besides, I’m really tired and just want to relax like we never do.”

“You don’t have to strip to do that, though!”

“Relax, Aquaman. You can turn around now, I’m decent.” Percy hesitantly turned around and took a sigh of relief. “Plus, I didn’t expect to go swimming so I didn’t bring my swim trunks.”

Percy rolled his eyes, but Jason could tell Percy was looking at Jason’s towel-covered body. “You’re welcome to join, by the way,” Jason winked and turned around, going toward the door.

“As if!” Percy yelled while throwing a pillow at Jason, who just dodged it by walking into the other room.

Jason closed the door, smiling, content to be by himself and getting ready to relax. When he flipped the light switch, some mechanical process activated all of the candles in the room so that the room was cast in a semi-romantic glow. He wasn’t used to all the fancy luxuriousness that covered the room in front of him, so he took the time to admire everything and the way that it was set up. _If it’s being paid for me, I might as well not let the money go to waste._

He went to the tub and began looking at the user’s manual that rested on a stool. He’s learned to cope with his dyslexia, so reading the how-to on the hot tub wasn’t as difficult as some of the other things he’s had to read before. Jason was sure the hot tub was really expensive, because there were all these nozzles, knobs, and other features that were described in the manual he never actually heard of. So, he decided to stick to what he _did_ know and activated it.

 _What a sight_ , he thought as he saw the water fall from the spouts on each of the corners. Crystal-clear water, unlike the water from the tap, flowed out, filling the tub with reflections of candle flame. The sound of the water rushing made him realize that he had been stressing out too much, and with the cascade of the liquid, he relinquished all of his worries down the energetic drain. A button on the side of the wall read “Bubbles” and Jason pressed it; and within seconds, the tub filled not just with water, but with a colorful soapiness that was illuminated by multicolored lights from the tub.

The scene was like a magical oasis of relaxation to him.

 _I must be dreaming_ , he thought. Excitement to take a dip bubbled inside him like the bubbling of the tub. _Percy has to see this, but I can’t wait to try it out first_. And with that, Jason unceremoniously removed his towel and stepped inside the tub. When the heat of the water hit him, he seriously thought he was dreaming. _All of this monster fighting and mirror finding is so much work, I never get the time for just me. I needed this,_ he thought with a deep sigh of relief.

Submerging himself to his chest, he sat down and spread out his arms to rest on the edges of the tub, stretching is legs out and laying his head back as he did so. The automatic jets began to massage Jason’s back like little fingers hitting strategic stress points to help him ease out. Jason wanted to fully go under the liquid heat, so he quickly went underneath to get his hair wet, and when he rose, he took a breath of the candle-scented air and felt the most relaxed he had in his whole life.

It was when Jason laid his head back once more and closed his eyes that he noticed how overworked his life is. He hadn’t even realized the fact that his muscles were sore until then, and he was glad he decided to go on this trip with Percy. All of his militaristic upbringing seemed to have been swept away for the time being, and memories of his past slowly crawled into his mind. He’s so rarely had time to reflect on his past that he wanted to thoroughly enjoy this moment to himself.

Memories of his childhood made its way inside that head of his; the time when Lupa had forced him to search for food on his own, in particular. Or of his time in Camp Half-Blood as a Greek, when he and Piper shared a kiss that was his first time remembering. And of that fateful night in New Rome where he and Percy danced until _those_ events transpired.

The thoughts of touching Percy, of kissing him like he just did in the other room, of feeling his hair or looking at his face and seeing that hot, lewd expression—those thoughts occasionally sprang back into Jason’s mind from time to time. But tonight, those memories came back stronger than ever, the feelings of that night wanting to be felt again. Why had Jason kissed Percy just then? And why did he invite Percy to the tub? Why did, to go to the root of all this, Aphrodite have to mess with them in the first place?

Bros.

Not bros.

Bros.

Bros don’t do that. Not things like that.

But… They had, hadn’t they? And as much as Jason hated to admit it, he _loved_ it. He liked the feeling of being in control, of holding Percy as he relentlessly went in and out, of hearing Percy’s voice that begged Jason to keep going. He wanted to do it again, but out of the sake of friendship, he refused those feelings. He thought he was doing Percy a favor by rejecting Percy, but he realized he was just doing himself a favor.

The memories of everything that happened between them—the night before Jason’s birthday, the morning after, the times they slept with each other aboard the _Sky Fleet_ , and just now in the room—flooded into his consciousness, and he couldn’t hold himself any longer. With little surprise, he realized his erection to be growing in size, the feeling of blood pooling to his groin being all too familiar. He wanted to masturbate; most healthy boys did it, he was sure, but he’s resisted the urge to masturbate to the idea of Percy thus far.

Jason’s resolve was cracking, however. With Percy in the other room, his sensitivity was heightened greatly. Percy was _right there_ , separated only by a door, and now was his chance. He just wanted to do it a little bit, not for too long, so there was nothing wrong in doing it in thinking of his bro, right? He reached down, past the bubbles, hesitating on whether to do it. Is it wrong? What would Percy say if he found out?

Jason inwardly scoffed. Percy would never find out, he was in the other room. His hand went a little closer toward his now-aching member, but Jason continued to have second thoughts. What if Percy walked in? Nah, Percy wouldn’t because he knew Jason was naked in there. Jason’s hand got closer to what he’s wanted for a while…

Success! Jason let out a moan of pleasure as his hand wrapped around the base of his erection, so undeniably good in its reward. Jason looked at the door, making sure Percy had not walked in in that span of half a second. His eyes glazed over as the thought of Percy’s tight heat crossed Jason’s mind, and his hand slowly shifted up in the water. He moaned softly, slowly going down and up, up and down, and placing his thumb on his slit.

Jason’s face was heated, his chest rising and falling, as he rubbed the tip of his head. He continued to stroke it gradually, not wanting to make too much noise and definitely wanting to make this last as long as possible. His mouth was slightly open and his eyelids were heavy; he’s masturbated before, but those sessions had never been this intense before. With his other hand, the thought of Percy’s mouth on his member, he reached down and began to play with his balls. This was wrong, yes, but it felt so _good_.

When Percy walked in with nothing but a towel and a shy face, it was Jason’s turn to freak out. He jumped to an upright sitting position, nonsensically covering his private area even though the bubbles did that for him, and his face flushed beyond reason with wide, unexpectant eyes.

“Hey,” Percy said with a shy smile. “Thought I’d join you.”

Jason cleared his throat, his erection fully up, and spoke. “Hey, man. Yeah, no problem.” His attempt at keeping his composure seemed to have worked since Percy made no signal toward knowing what Jason had just been doing. He continued to keep his hands over his groin, just in case.

Percy put his hands to his towel and his face reddened as he looked at Jason. “Do you mind not looking while I step in?”

Jason smirked awkwardly. “It’s not like I haven’t seen you before.”

Percy blushed even more and looked startled at Jason. “J-Jason!”

Jason raised his hands in surrender, his erection springing free underneath the water, and he let out a small hiss at the smooth friction. “Fine,” he said playfully, and turned his head. He heard Percy’s towel fall and Percy’s descent into the water after a few seconds.

“You can turn around now.”

Sparing not a second, Jason turned around and looked at Percy’s upper body, it being what was left of Percy that wasn’t underwater. Percy seemed to have collected enough bubbles to cover himself because as sneakily as Jason tried to take a perverted peak, he couldn’t see past the soap. Probably for the best, anyway.

Percy sighed in relief, probably taking in the feel of the water. With Percy’s element being water, Jason could only imagine how good Percy must be feeling right now. He hoped Percy can’t detect Jason’s unchanging erection as well. Jason decided to pretend it wasn’t there, like he never got hard in the first place, and extended his legs even more as a show of confidence. Percy looked a little shy at first, but he soon got over it.

“This feels amazing, Jace.”

Jason raised an eyebrow at the nickname but disregarded it. “Yeah? Have you felt the water jets?”

Percy looked at Jason and beamed. “There’s jets?” he asked excitedly.

“Yeah, over here!” Jason beckoned Percy over to his side, where the jets were turned on. Jason was too lazy to change the settings for the whole tub to have jets, so Percy would have to go to where Jason was.

“You sure?” Percy asked, his face red. “It’s not like, too close?”

Jason’s face reddened, too, the thought just occurring to him that they, naked, would be getting closer to each other. “It’s fine,” Jason blurted out before he could stop himself. _Idiot_ , he thought. _I have a hard-on and I invite him to my side. I’m an idiot._

“If you say so,” Percy said while slowly making his way to where Jason was. There was a brief moment of skin-on-skin contact during Percy’s shuffling and Jason, being for some reason hypersensitive, had to bite his lip so as to not make any sound. When Percy rested, the jets hit his back like the same fingers that massaged Jason. Percy spoke in a vibratory voice, “Th-is is aa-maa-zz-iiing.”

Jason chuckled, looking at the boy that sat beside him. It’s not weird they were naked, right? They were simply enjoying themselves, not doing anything particularly sexual. But there was the fact that Jason’s erection was still there…

 _No_ , Jason thought. He had to suppress the urge and think with the head on his shoulders, not the head at his groin. He couldn’t give into the temptation that called at him so strongly. But Percy was right there, enjoying himself, and he carved a path through the soapy bubbliness when he moved that allowed Jason to see a little bit of skin.

Jason shook his head, attracting Percy’s attention. “Something wrong?”

Jason blushed, stating rather quickly, “Nothing!” He ran a soaked hand through his wet hair and laughed nervously. “I’m good.”

Percy looked skeptical, but he continued to enjoy himself at the jets. Jason gave another sigh of relief, and attempted to relax as much as Percy was. If one thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to let Percy have more fun than he was. Which is why Jason, rather impulsively, decided to splash Percy. Percy wiped his face to get the water out of his eyes, and looked playfully offended at Jason.

Scoffing, Percy asked disbelievingly, “Did you just splash me?”

“Maybe,” Jason replied teasingly.

“Oh, it’s so on, dude,” Percy declared as he splashed Jason back, just as much.

The two went at it, laughing and splashing each other for quite some time, Percy claiming that he clearly has the advantage over Jason. Jason was having none of it and splashed Percy with even more force the next time, and Percy responded with a “That’s it” and tackled Jason against the tub wall. They began to wrestle underwater, Percy being able to breathe and Jason having to occasionally go up for air. Their wrestling came to an abrupt halt, however, when the tip of Jason’s erect dick touched Percy’s thigh.

They froze, both of their faces turning red as a tomato instantly. Jason—and he had to admit to himself he thinks he’s a closet pervert—took this time to sneak a glimpse underwater at Percy’s naked body, and was surprised to see Percy was just as hard as he was. Jason was oddly happy about that, but before he had time to react, Percy reversed their positions so that Percy was dominant. They continued to wrestle, Percy’s face adorning a smirk that reads “I win” all over it.

Jason, not wanting to lose, decided to play dirty and freed one of his hands to palm Percy’s erection. Percy yelped underwater, air bubbles escaping his mouth in the process. They rose from the water, Jason removing his hand and taking a deep breath so as to survive, and Percy looking shocked at Jason. “Wha—?” was all Percy could muster, looking flustered. Percy’s hands were covering his private region, his face a brighter red than Jason’s.

“Couldn’t let you win, Jackson.”

Percy swallowed nervously, saying, “That was a dirty move, Grace.”

“Shouldn’t have been open,” Jason shrugged nonchalantly. If anything, that encounter only made him harder than before.

“That’s totally unfair!”

“And?” Jason challenged, smirking.

“I see how it is, Jace.” Percy swam to Jason at a shark’s pace, Jason not registering that fact that Percy had made his way next to him in the fraction of a second. “Two can play at that game,” was all Percy said right before he reached for Jason’s own erection. Jason’s breath hitched, looking at Percy as if asking about his audacity.

Jason tried to play it coolly by withholding moans, but Percy was for some reason really good at giving handjobs apparently. Instead of giving in, however, Jason’s hands reached for Percy’s nipples and began to play with them. While Percy’s _ohsofuckinggood_ hand was stroking at Jason, Jason’s hands were pinching, rubbing, and circling Percy’s pink nipples.

Their faces were flushed, and they were in the moment; neither of them wanted to give in, but both began to let out moans of pleasure at about the same time. Jason decided to make things more interesting by grabbing Percy’s dick as well, and they both jacked each other off in sync with each other’s strokes, except that Jason also went to suck Percy’s neck.

Jason knowingly guided Percy onto his lap, the game over by then. Neither of them had won, but both of them were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Percy had grabbed both of their dicks and began to masturbate for the both of them, the friction and the feel of the water really intense for Jason. Jason, though, placed one hand at the small of Percy’s back for support and the other at Percy’s nipple, while sucking on his neck. Moaning came from both boys, and Jason was sure that he was going to come soon.

“J-Jason!” Percy said in a panic.

Jason pulled away from Percy, looking at him with concern. “Yeah?” Percy was looking at the corner of the room, and Jason followed his gaze toward a woman clad in a red silk dress sitting on a lavish chair Jason was sure wasn’t there before.

The boys, embarrassed, pulled away from each other as if the other had the plague.

“Oh, don’t mind me, boys. I’m just spectating,” the woman said from behind a fan that she pulled from her purse. “Keep going, please.”

If getting his erection to go away was a problem for Jason before, it sure as Hades wasn’t then. “Aphrodite,” Jason gritted through his teeth.

A feeling of mortification washed over Jason, the thought of being watched leaving disgust to well up inside of him. “What are you doing here?” Percy asked bluntly. His face was just as red as Jason’s, but he nonetheless wanted Aphrodite _out_ , Jason could tell.

Aphrodite rose from her chair with a supermodel’s grace. She smiled icily at the two boys, a cold stare hiding behind those eyes. “Oh, you’re not even going to offer me some tea or water? What kind of hosts are you?”

“We’re not your hosts,” Jason said. “You invited yourself in without asking.”

“You two should be thanking me, not getting mad at me.”

The two looked at each other, puzzled. “What do you mean?” Percy asked.

“If it weren’t for me, it would have taken forever for you two to get together. I mean look at you two! Your chemistry is through the roof!”

Jason blushed, still wanting to disbelieve that he liked Percy more than a bro, even though he knows he admitted it to himself before. “You forced feelings that weren’t there before,” Jason replied.

“Please. The way you two interacted with each other during your quest to save the world from the Earth Mother is undeniable. It was bound to happen sooner or later, I just happened to… _Accelerate_ it.”

“Minotaur crap,” Percy snapped. “This is all your fault.”

“Yeah,” Jason supported. “None of this would’ve happened if you didn’t mess with our heads.”

Aphrodite simply smiled at them. “I know blossoming attraction when I see it. I _am_ the goddess of romance, after all. And you two definitely had something before I came along. But I’m not here to talk about this with you. I’m here to take back my mirror, if you have it.”

“It’s in the other room,” Jason said while tilting his head at the door. “Get it yourself.”

Fanning herself, Aphrodite teased, “That’s no way to treat a lady! You’re a gentleman—why don’t you get it for me?” Aphrodite’s tone of voice more demanded rather than asked.

“But I’m naked!” Jason protested.

“So? It’s not like the two of us haven’t seen you before.”

Percy snorted at that and Jason gave a quick glare at him. Rolling his eyes, he said, “Fine,” and rose from the tub, not caring that they were looking at him. Jason knew that Percy was eyeing his body, taking in everything he could get from the brief moments of exposure. Jason was proud to say he had a good-looking body, and he wasn’t ashamed to walk around in it. But he still wanted his towel—he didn’t mind Aphrodite looking, but for some reason, having Percy there made him a little nervous.

Jason wrapped his towel around his waist and left the hot tub room without a word. He went to the counter and picked up the triangular mirror, holding the towel by his free hand. When he walked back into the room, Aphrodite had changed into a blue dress, and looked entirely different. Percy still looked as attractive as ever—even though Jason would never say that out loud.

“Here’s your mirror,” Jason said with a scowl.

“Thank you,” Aphrodite said contently. “I will be going now. You two keep having your little fun, I don’t want to ruin your sexual tension.” In a flash of light, she disappeared.

Jason’s “fun” was ruined the moment they were caught. He had his moments of relaxation, and was in no mood to go back in the water. As a matter of fact, the wave of sleepiness that hit him earlier in the night washed over him again. “Hey, Perce? I think I’m going to head out for the night.” Jason felt awkward for being so abrupt about that, but he really was tired.

“O-Okay… I’ll uh… Finish here, then, and I’ll join you soon, I guess?”

“Yeah…” Jason said awkwardly scratching his head. He grabbed another towel and began to dry the rest of himself—he envied the fact that Percy can come out of water dry, but this gave him more time to be less awkward. “How dare she?”

“I know, right?” Percy said. “But… I guess it was good she came when she did…”

Jason picked up his clothing and began to get dressed. Percy remained in the water. “Yeah? Why?”

“I know you’re not really into me, that it’s just a spell, and I don’t want you to regret doing something else again.”

Jason paused to look at Percy, whose gaze was downcast and his fingers making trails in the water. They remained in silence for the duration of Jason’s changing, and just before Jason left the room, he said, “I don’t regret that night.”

He closed the door behind him and walked toward the bed, not wanting to know Percy’s response. When he reached the bed, he hung his towels by a rack nearby and threw himself onto the bed. Jason let out yet another sigh—one of comfort and contentedness this time. He closed his eyes; Jason particularly hated this moment, the moments just before one slept. That was the time when most of one’s thoughts come to the forefront of the mind, procured from the subconscious to be discussed in the conscious.

He thought of what he just shared with Percy, the moment of vulnerability wherein he revealed thoughts and feelings he himself wasn’t sure of. He had grown with him in the past day, and it _had_ been quite a long day. Hades, they even did something pretty promiscuous just then, and Jason liked it. What did it mean? Jason didn’t know, but whatever it was would have to wait until morning.

Jason’s thoughts were muddled with fading in and out of sleep, and when slumber finally began to take its arrested hold on Jason, Jason just faintly heard the sound of the door open and close…

**-PJ &TO!-**

When Jason woke up, the sun was shining through the heavy curtains ever so brightly. He cracked open an eyelid only to find a shirtless Percy spooned up in front of him. Percy was still sleeping, his mouth slightly open, and Jason thought he had never seen a more innocent face in his life. Jason was used to seeing the “tough guy” façade Percy typically puts up, especially after he came back from Tartarus, but now that he was sleeping, Jason thought he looked as harmless as a puppy.

He smiled and untangled himself from Percy, confused about what he was feeling. He got up from the bed and walked toward the bay windows, peering down at the city of Boston below. It had to have been about one in the afternoon, based off the position of the sun. _Had we really slept that long?_ They must’ve been exhausted. He continued to look down at the busyness that was below, taking in the beautiful view the room had to offer. He had a clear sight of the same park he and Percy visited yesterday, and the sweet memories of before rolled back into his head.

Jason had no clue what to feel then: he might legitimately like Percy, or he might simply be under a spell. It was weird, though, to think that he might _actually_ like him. As far as he knew, he never had any interest in other dudes before, so other than the fact that Aphrodite made them fall for each other, why was he having feelings for the guy? Everything just seemed so bizarre to him that it made it difficult to believe.

What was it that Aphrodite said yesterday? “ _It was bound to happen sooner or later_ ,” right? That’s what she said, if he remembered correctly. What did she mean by that? That even if she hadn’t intervened, they probably would’ve done something anyway? Jason found that to be ludicrous, but she did make the point that she was the goddess of romance. Maybe he and Percy were _meant_ to be together?

 _No, you’re talking crazy, Jason_ , he thought. _There’s no way I’d ever be attracted to_ Aquaman _over there. He gets on my nerves and he’s impossible sometimes._ But maybe that’s what Jason wants, secretly. Someone he can’t figure out, like an oddity that comes along once in a lifetime. He thought Piper was the same way—she always liked being a girl but never liked the girly things in life, and he found that to be something worth exploring more. But Percy was an anomaly on all fronts: he acts tough but intimately wants to be passive, has gone through Tartarus but is willing to hide it for his friends, and supposedly had this relationship with the perfect girl, Annabeth, but had been the subject of revenge due to something out of his control.

Jason withdrew from his thoughts and went to his duffle bag to change into fresh clothing. When he finished, he shook Percy by the foot and Percy responded by groggily waking up. “Hey man, wake up. We have to catch the next train out of here.”

“Five more minutes,” Percy protested.

“Get up. C’mon,” Jason said, pulling the blankets off Percy, who groaned in disapproval but got up slowly anyway.

They both began their hygienic routine of brushing their teeth, washing their face, fixing their hair, showering and more. After about forty-five minutes of everything, they were ready to get going. Percy was hungry, so Jason promised they could go out to get breakfast somewhere. When they checked out, the front desk had told them it was almost noon, which startled Jason but he thanked them anyway. Maybe last night had messed with his perception of time.

Percy and Jason left the hotel, carrying the same things they carried before, except without a mirror. Percy found a breakfast diner and Jason agreed, so they went. When Percy ordered blue pancakes, Jason rolled his eyes and ordered scrambled eggs. They spoke more about their interests, what family meant to them, and their individual experiences at both camps. It was closer toward the end of their meal that Percy decided to bring up the events of last night. Jason nearly choked on a piece of French toast.

“What do you mean?” Jason asked.

“You said you didn’t regret that night. Does that mean what happened last night…?”

“Look, Percy,” Jason said in a serious manner. “I don’t know what I feel, okay? Last night was fun and all, but I just need some time to think. You’re a cool guy and I still want you to be my bro, but I need to think this over before I say anything.” _Anything that might hurt you_ , he wanted to add, but decided against it.

Percy deflated a bit, continuing to eat his pancakes with a distant sadness on his face. “Yeah, I understand.”

“Thank you, Perce,” Jason said with a genuine smile. He smiled more at the tinge the pink that splashed Percy’s cheeks rather than anything else.

They finished the rest of their meal in silence, although it wasn’t necessarily awkward. Tension was present, yes, but not awkwardness, which was progress, Jason surmised. But it was true—Jason _did_ need time to think, because he felt so lost that he didn’t know what to think. His only hope was that he didn’t hurt the vulnerable boy in front of him.

When they paid the meal with the Camp’s mortal money and left, they continued to say nothing. Jason was slightly uncomfortable, but truth be told, he used the silence to think about what happened in the past. Maybe there was a chance at something more between them. Who knows? He wasn’t sure about believing Aphrodite when she said they were bound to get together, but maybe they _did_ have chemistry. He was skeptical to say the least, but the seed of possibility was planted in his mind.

The two were walking toward the train station, Percy offhandedly mentioning that he was happy about being full, when a large shadow was cast upon the city. They looked up to see one of the airships from the _Sky Fleet_ getting closer, and the boys exchanged a worried glance. The airship began to descend in one of the fields of Boston, and both Percy and Jason ran toward it. What they found was something unexpected: a parked airship and a panicked Leo.

“Jason, Percy, thank gods I found you two,” Leo said out-of-breath.

“What’s wrong?” Jason asked.

“And why are you in Boston?” Percy followed.

Leo rested on one of the support beams for the entrance to the airship and swallowed. “Jason—it’s Piper.”

Jason immediately went alert, his back straightening. “What happened?”

“She—” Leo said in between breaths. “She tried to commit suicide.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the story as much as I liked writing it! If you liked it, please comment/kudos it. Thank you for reading!


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